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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Federal judge in Spokane sentences ‘serial abuser’ to prison after knife attack

A Spokane felon, Seth Randles, 36, pleaded guilty Thursday to charges related to human trafficking for sex charges. He appeared before U.S. District Court Judge Stanley Bastian at the Thomas S. Foley United States Courthouse, shown here in May. (Jesse Tinsley / The Spokesman-Review)

After the first beating, Diane Leach walked into the night. She marched more than 8 miles on the Colville Indian Reservation before her boyfriend, a convicted serial abuser, tracked her down and the attack intensified.

“I have friends who are missing and are never found,” Leach said as she confronted her abuser in front of a federal judge Thursday in Spokane. “How you ripped my heart out … and stomped on my soul. I could have been one of those missing women.”

U.S. District Court Judge Salvador Mendoza Jr. earlier rejected a guilty plea for Leach’s attacker, Tommie J. Flett, 47, saying the sentencing guidelines simply did not contemplate someone with Flett’s extensive history of beating women, including an incident in which he threw a woman from a moving vehicle.

However, Mendoza accepted the updated plea and sentenced Flett on Thursday to five years in prison. Flett is an enrolled member of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Indian Reservation.

“It’s inadequate, but that is what you will receive,” Mendoza told Flett. The judge also warned Flett that if he doesn’t follow his release conditions, “I can’t predict what you will get. But, I advise you not to come back before my court. It’s not going to go well. I can assure you, I will remember this case.”

It began in the early hours of July 12, 2018, when Leach, Flett and friend David Louie drove to Owhi Lake. The couple began to argue, and Flett attacked Leach, who was able to escape the first beating, court records say. She walked more than 8 miles back to Nespelem.

After her journey, she stopped at the first home she encountered, a fifth-wheel trailer, where she found Louie, whom she had been with earlier that night. As they spoke, Flett arrived and began punching Leach in the head, court records state.

Louie fought off Flett, who fled, but he returned minutes later. Louie had gone to a neighbor’s home to get water so Leach could clean her bleeding wounds when he heard Leach screaming again, according to court records.

This time Flett had a knife as he beat Leach. Louie saw Leach “lying on the ground with her hand and arms held up covering her face,” court records state. “Flett was standing over (Leach) punching and stabbing her.”

Louie again ran to Leach’s defense and kicked Flett to the ground. But Flett grabbed a rock and threw it, hitting Louie in the head. “Flett (then) picked up a board from nearby on the ground, which he used to hit Louie in the head,” according to court records. “Flett then took off running.”

Dazed from the board attack, Louie then gathered Leach and they walked to tribal EMS to get medical attention for her stab wounds. But Flett arrived at that location and chased Leach, who ran away, kicked in a door of an unoccupied home and eventually escaped Flett by hiding on a nearby porch.

Leach had suffered a severe cut on her hand and suffered lacerations to both legs in the attack. A probation officer found her the next day with dried blood on her wounds.

The attack that night “happened again and again,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Barker said. “This defendant had every opportunity to stop this assault.”

Barker then began to list Flett’s previous attacks. In 2008, a witness estimated that Flett was driving 60 mph when he threw a woman from his Ford Explorer. The victim suffered serious injuries in the assault that was investigated by Colville Tribal Police, according to court records.

Then in 2012, Flett was charged and later pleaded guilty in federal court to beating his girlfriend in Omak.

The girlfriend said Flett attacked her after she mentioned the name of another man. According to court records, Flett kicked the woman eight to 12 times before he pulled a knife and cut her three times on the shoulder.

As she tried to escape, Flett put the knife to the woman’s throat and threatened to kill her. “I’m gonna gut you ’cause a married woman doesn’t talk to her man like that.” According to court records, Flett later told her: “You’re mine. I own you. I’ll kill you before I let you leave me.”

After pleading guilty to assault with a deadly weapon and domestic assault by a habitual offender, Flett was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Fred Van Sickle in August 2013 to about three years in prison and three years supervised release.

Mendoza said the current case was one of the most “egregious” assaults he had seen while on the bench.

“I have to look at all these instances of abuse you have caused,” Mendoza told Flett. “It’s clear to this court that you are a serial abuser. You have no regard for these women.”

Leach said in court Thursday that she had spoken to one of Flett’s earlier victims.

“What kind of Native are you? You are a coward,” Leach told Flett. “I encourage more women to stand up. Domestic violence is not OK.”

She asked Mendoza to help protect her and her children when Flett gets out of prison.

“A real man don’t hit women,” Leach told Flett. “I want no memory of you. My nightmares are good enough.”