Life terms for brutal beating upheld

BOISE – A man sentenced to four consecutive life prison terms plus 30 years for the brutal roadside beating of a Washington state woman has lost his appeal in the Idaho Court of Appeals.

Jeremy Flores Sanchez of Caldwell was convicted in June 2003 of robbery, conspiracy to commit robbery, kidnapping, conspiracy to commit kidnapping, aggravated battery and aiding in an attempted first-degree murder. He was one of four people convicted in the June 15, 2000, attack on Linda LeBrane of Port Townsend, Wash.

LeBrane was driving alone through Canyon County on Interstate 84 when three men and a woman forced her off the road, took her to a field, beat her with a bat and stabbed and slashed her several times. Investigators said her attackers left for a time and then returned to stab her again and set her car on fire.

LeBrane survived the attack, though she spent months in rehabilitation before she could return home.

In his appeal, Sanchez said comments about the victim’s and a codefendant’s religion compromised his right to a fair trial. He also said the judge should have instructed the jury about the inherent risks of eyewitness identifications and claimed his sentences are excessive.

Sanchez said the prosecutor’s frequent references to the Mormon church – and the fact that both the victim and one of her attackers, Kenneth Wurdemann, were church members – were an attempt to appeal to the sympathies of Mormon jurors.

Chief Judge Darrell Perry, writing for the three-judge panel, said that while prosecutors are not allowed to make religious references to inflame jurors, the references during Sanchez’s trial were made to explain some details of the case.

“The record does not support Sanchez’s contention that references to religion were so inflammatory that the jurors may have been influenced to determine guilt on factors outside the evidence,” Perry wrote in the ruling filed Thursday.

LeBrane failed to identify Sanchez in a photo lineup, but correctly identified him during a later video lineup. Sanchez said the jury should have been instructed about the inherent risks of eyewitness identification, but he never requested such an instruction, the court found, and lack of the instruction did not deprive him of a fair trial.

Finally, the court agreed with the lower court’s finding that Sanchez’s crimes were “callous, vicious and represented incomprehensible, senseless acts of violence.”