‘The justice he deserves’: Judge considers cutting sentence in murder of beloved coach

KENNEWICK, Wash. – A man convicted of killing a beloved Benton City coach and teacher 18 years ago will not get his sentence reduced.

Judge Jacqueline Stam decided Tuesday to uphold Robert Suarez’s original 27-year-long sentence, finding that the judge in 2005 took Suarez’s age into consideration.

He was 16 when he and Jordan Castillo, then 14, killed the Kiona-Benton City teacher in 2004.

Stam’s decision means Suarez is due to be released in March 2031, according to the Washington Department of Corrections.

The news was met by relief from Bob Mars’ family and friends and disappointment from Suarez’s family.

“I just feel like it’s a hurdle right now,” Bob Mars’ widow Kris Mars told the Herald after the announcement. “I’m grateful that the judge and the courts are upholding the sentence. … This is really not about anybody but Bob and the justice that he deserved.”

Even after 18 years, her husband’s death was deeply felt. Two Benton County courtrooms were filled with people wanting to attend Tuesday’s hearing.

“Our family couldn’t have gotten through these past few months without the support of the community,” Kris Mars said. “And that is exactly what Bob would have done for others.”

Suarez’s attorney, Jeffrey Ellis told the Herald they haven’t decide whether to appeal Stam’s decision.

Suarez apologized through his own tears, saying that nothing he can do or say will change the past.

“I’m not even a mere shadow of what I was,” he said. “Today I see a future. That is only because of the time that I have done.”

His brother and mother also spoke at the hearing, saying that his mother’s drug addiction drove Suarez to find love and acceptance from a gang. They asked for lenience for the man who they said had changed during his nearly two decades in prison.

Tuesday’s nearly two-hour emotionally-charged hearing was the result of a series of cases in which lengthy sentences were reconsidered if the person who committed the crime was young at the time.

They followed a 2017 Washington Supreme Court decision about two teens sentenced to decades in prison for robbing trick-or-treaters at gunpoint.

The Pierce County judge and prosecutor in that case lamented that they wanted a shorter sentence for the teens, but that the law didn’t allow it.

Planned robbery

Benton County Prosecutor Andy Miller, who handled Suarez’s initial sentencing for first-degree murder, argued that Judge Robert Swisher at the time considered Suarez’s youth and that this case was different than other cases where judges had reconsidered the sentences.

“This is not a case where Judge Swisher gave the bottom of the sentencing range and may have wished he could have gone shorter,” Miller said. “This is not even a case where Judge Swisher gave the middle of the range.”

The two boys had been dropped off in Benton City on Sept. 4, 2004, and found themselves stranded. They decided to rob someone using a military-style knife that Castillo had.

Miller pointed out that Suarez pumped up Castillo, and made him promise to use the knife.

They saw Mars after a football game as he was returning to the school to return some equipment. The pair picked out someone who would be out of sight of passersby, Miller said.

“That contradicts the argument of impulsivity,” he said. “That shows, we’re not going to jack somebody where somebody might see it. So they go around to the back of the high school.”

They approached the 44-year-old assistant football coach as he was going into his portable classroom. They asked for 50 cents for a pay phone, and Mars opened the door to his class to let them use the classroom phone.

“The sad thing is that everyone knows that if they needed money Bob Mars, bless his heart, would have given it to them,” Miller said. “Mr. Mars … would have driven Mr. Suarez and Mr. Castillo to his grandmother’s home in Kennewick.”

Instead of giving him the chance, they stabbed him, burying the knife up to the hilt. Mars pulled the knife out and ran. He was able to make it into the school before collapsing from his wound.

The two had discussed pursuing him into the school, Miller said. They were only stopped by the door that had automatically locked behind him.

They broke into Mars’ car, stole money and snacks.

“This is not an immature naive man who did something that he immediately regretted,” Miller said. “This was a man who committed a planned crime, and he had the sophistication to think about Mr. Mars and the need to finish him off, and then his ability to lie to Detective (Lee) Cantu.”

Wound still runs deep

Kris Mars told Stam on Tuesday the tragedy of Bob Mars’ murder still runs deep for her, her family and the community. She brought her husband’s ashes to the podium as she asked not to change Suarez’s sentence.

“Time does not indeed heal all wounds. It merely dulls the edges,” she said. “That is until the scab is once again ripped wide open. It is unfathomable to me that I would again have to stand in a courtroom after all this time. This resentencing hearing has again ripped open the 18-year-old wound.”

Bob Mars was a kind, goofy and athletic man who was always there for other people, Kris Mars said. He served as a father figure to students and was a friend to his colleagues. The teens killed him for a bag of Ritz crackers, a cellphone and $474 in concessions money.

“Now Suarez has the audacity to stand here and ask for less time,” she said. “That does not seem like remorse to me. … They murdered him and left him for dead, stole those items from his truck, got jumped into a gang later that time, and then went shopping at the mall the next day using the stolen money.”

She said this wasn’t a robbery gone wrong, but a murder instigated by a then 16-year-old.

Kody Mars, Bob and Kris’ youngest son, said he was handed a life sentence with his father’s murder and he found it incomprehensible that Suarez would believe he should get his sentence reduced.

He asked the judge to see that Suarez was given a fair punishment.

“Mr. Suarez, you chose your path and that path led you down dark roads, but a man would accept his punishment for his wrongdoing not make excuses for himself,” he said.

‘A repentant man’

But Ellis argued that Suarez has spent the past 18 years on a path of improvement that shows that he has matured in the prison system.

He argued that rather than looking back at the details of the crime, the court should be looking at his improvement since then.

Suarez has pursued training and in most cases he has been very positive and respectful, Ellis said. His most recent infraction was in 2019 when he was insubordinate with a corrections officer.

“When Mr. Suarez committed this murder, he was young, he was foolish,” Ellis said.

Ellis said Suarez wasn’t trying to escape from the consequences of his actions.

He argued that adolescents normally don’t have the same capacity for judgment as adults. The facts in Suarez’s case makes him even less likely to have understood the consequences of his actions.

“No 16-year-old is neurodevelopmentally mature,” Ellis wrote. “However, a 16-year-old who has experienced deprivation, who socialization comes mainly from peers and who uses drugs is very likely even more impaired than other peers his age.”

When looking at his current conditions combined with his history, Ellis said that he wouldn’t have committed the same crime.

“That does not excuse the crime,” he said. “It does merit a lesser sentence than an adult would receive.”

“Mr. Suarez is a repentant man who committed a terrible wrong when he was a child. He is lucky to have a family that stood by him. For the reasons herein, Mr. Suarez seeks a sentence that constitutes stern punishment, but which also places the focus on Suarez’s on-going and positive rehabilitation.”

Abusive upbringing

Suarez’s brother, Alfredo Suarez, told Stam that his family suffered with a mother who was often addicted to methampetamine when they were growing up.

While it didn’t forgive what his brother did, Alfredo Suarez said it helped explain why he sought out a family among gang members.

Alfredo Suarez said he also became addicted to drugs, and could have easily taken the same path as his brother.

“The people in our lives were not what you would call healthy,” he said. “I’m truly, truly sorry. We were messed up kids.”

He apologized to the Mars family and the community for what happened, and prayed for their peace of mind.

Suarez repeated that apology through his own tears, saying that nothing he can do or say will change the past.

“I’m not even a mere shadow of what I was,” he said. “Today I see a future. That is only because of the time that I have done.”