Woman pleads guilty to murder for 2017 lower South Hill killing

A 27-year-old woman will spend 30 years in prison for killing one person and shooting another almost four years ago on Spokane’s lower South Hill if a judge accepts the sentencing recommendation from the prosecution and defense.

Anne M. Carpenter pleaded guilty Friday in Spokane County Superior Court to first-degree murder and second-degree assault.

Carpenter, who is in the Spokane County Jail, killed Danette Kane, owner of the Westview Manor apartment complex, and shot the complex’s manager Michael Troy, who is now blind.

Police say she shot the two Dec. 19, 2017. She was arrested days later armed with a 9mm handgun after a city-wide police search located her near the NorthTown Mall .

“It is a unique case and a true tragedy on every level,” said Jeremy Schmidt, Carpenter’s attorney.

Court records say the killing may have been motivated by Carpenter’s father facing eviction, but the Kane family, many of whom were in attendance at Friday’s plea hearing, denied having any knowledge of the possible eviction.

Troy said in February 2018 that Carpenter’s father was a nuisance at times, but it was nothing that would amount to eviction.

A doctor in early 2018 diagnosed Carpenter with paranoid schizophrenia and determined she was “not competent to stand trial.”

According to the doctor’s report, Carpenter was diagnosed as schizophrenic in 2013 when she was living with her mother in Oahu, Hawaii. She was prescribed medication but she refused to take it, her mother told detectives.

Schmidt told the court Friday Carpenter has been meeting with mental health providers and that her competency to understand the legal aspects of the case was restored in 2019.

He said the jointly recommended sentence fits the “unique nature” of the case.

“This was not done lightly,” Schmidt said.

Retired Spokane County Superior Court Judge Jerome Leveque, who is representing the Kanes and is a longtime friend of the family, said the family unanimously agreed that it will not object to the plea agreement pertaining to the murder charge.

The guilty plea agreement calls for 25 years in prison, plus five years for a “firearm enhancement,” Judge Maryann Moreno said. The second-degree assault sentence would be served at the same time as the murder sentence.

The mandatory minimum sentence for first-degree murder is 20 years. The maximum penalty for first-degree murder is life in prison and the maximum penalty for second-degree assault is 10 years in prison.

Carpenter has no prior felony convictions.

She is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 3.