Shooter pleads guilty

Robert Norman Garwood’s defense attorney described him Wednesday as personable and articulate, but the judge who sentenced him to two years in prison for shooting at three Spokane Valley houses suggested it might be time for the young man to grow up.

“You dropped out after the eighth grade, you are 22, you haven’t been doing much of anything for the last three or four years, you don’t work, other people support you, you have a child you don’t have custody of, and you go around shooting at people’s houses,” Spokane Superior Court Judge Ellen Kalama Clark said.

“The behavior is criminal and cruel and evil and dangerous,” she added. “You are just darn lucky that nobody got hurt.”

Garwood, 22, pleaded guilty to two counts of drive-by shooting. In exchange, prosecutors dismissed a third charge stemming from his shooting several rounds into homes at 13924 E. 32nd, 15008 E. 12th and 1922 N. Barker Road at about midnight on Feb. 9.

“From the very beginning, he’s always admitted his culpability,” assistant public defender Jeff Compton said. “But that doesn’t lessen his responsibility for it. He knows that consequences are going to flow from his actions.”

Deputy Prosecutor Matthew Duggan agreed to seek only a two-year prison sentence for Garwood, who has no previous felony convictions.

Clark agreed with the recommendation but had some questions for Garwood about how he ended up shooting at houses owned by people he knows. Court records indicated that the motive may have been that Garwood was angry over a breakup with his girlfriend.

“You haven’t been in school. What have you been doing?” Clark asked.

Garwood replied, “Nothing.”

She then asked Garwood if he had been working. “I’ve had a couple jobs, but I haven’t been employed since 2002,” Garwood said.

Clark then asked how Garwood supported himself. “Other people do,” Garwood said.

“Mr. Garwood, I’m going to ask you a question, and I hope you have thought of this question already. What on earth was happening” on the night of the shooting?

“I wasn’t thinking,” he said.

Clark then asked what Garwood hopes to do after he gets out of prison.

“Well, I hope to get married and eventually get custody of my son,” he replied.

“How about a job, sir,” Clark shot back. “You think that might be a good idea?”

Garwood agreed. Clark then asked if he had interest in any particular field. “I like working with tires,” he said.

Garwood was arrested on Feb. 14 as fire consumed a house at 12104 E. Alki. The blaze broke out in the basement and left at least nine people homeless and the family dog dead.

As Spokane Valley firefighters doused the fire, Spokane Valley police detectives arrived and arrested Garwood, 18-year-old Jessie Starchman and 19-year-old Sean T. Smith in connection with the Feb. 9 drive-by shootings.

Renai Durst lives in the house on 32nd Avenue. Her window and her living room wall had four small bullet holes. Durst said one of the bullets struck just feet from a couch where her daughter was sleeping.

Judge Clark told Garwood that he has about 50 years left to get his life straightened out.