Spokane man sentenced to life in prison without parole for killing his mother

A Spokane man convicted of murdering his mother in 2018 was sentenced to life in prison Thursday without the possibility of parole.

Marquis Smith, 44, is considered a “persistent offender” with two prior strike offenses on his record. Spokane County Superior Court Judge Annette Plese said she had no choice but to sentence him to life in prison.

In December 2018, Smith stabbed his mother, Sandra Anderson, to death at her home at 811 W. Walton Ave.

Witnesses said Smith had a history of abusive behavior toward his mother and that his heavy drinking had caused problems at the apartment complex, according to court documents. On the day of her death witnesses said Smith was angry and had been drinking.

At the time, Smith had two prior violent felony convictions that are considered strikes in Washington state. The third strike mandates a life sentence without the possibility of parole.

In 1994, Smith was convicted of felony second-degree assault. In 1999 he was convicted of assault again for hitting his then-girlfriend in the face after an argument on the Fourth of July.

While under the Department of Corrections’ supervision, Smith was sanctioned multiple times for violating the terms of his release. He was even charged and convicted of driving under the influence. The repeated violations of his conditions of release caused the 1999 assault to remain a strike offense despite the decades since the conviction.

“He is a persistent offender and therefore the court can only impose the sentence of life without parole,” Prosecutor Geoffrey Kristianson said in court Thursday.

Smith’s Public Defender Colin Charbonneau acknowledged that reality.

“Obviously, there’s not much we can say here with the three-strike law in Washington state,” Charbonneau said.

After handing down the sentence, Plese, like the jury that convicted Smith, found he committed the homicide with a deadly weapon other than a fire arm, adding two years to his sentence.

No one appeared in court Thursday to give a victim impact statement, which is typical at a sentencing hearing. Smith himself declined to give a statement to the court.