Anacortes man avoids sentence of life in prison

A 40-year-old Anacortes man avoided life in prison Monday when a Skagit County Superior Court judge ruled that a previous conviction did not qualify as what is known under state law as a strike offense.

In Washington, three convictions on what are considered by the state to be among the most serious of offenses results in a life sentence without the possibility of parole.

But Monday, Judge Brian Stiles ruled Brett Harold Grimnes’ 2012 conviction of aggravated assault in Montana was not comparable to a strike offense under Washington law.

Instead, Stiles sentenced Grimnes for his Sept. 16 conviction on first-degree robbery to seven years in prison and 18 months of community custody following his release.

Grimnes has a previous conviction for second-degree assault in Skagit County in 2015. That conviction, as well as the first-degree robbery conviction, are strike offenses.

Grimnes was arrested by Skagit County Sheriff’s Office deputies May 7, 2021, for robbing a gas station on Old Highway 99 North, according to an affidavit of probable cause.

According to the affidavit, a man later determined to be Grimnes hit a clerk in the gas station’s store with a wrench and stole items from the store.

Grimnes represented himself at his trial.

Following his conviction, he filed multiple motions alleging prosecutorial misconduct and claiming his standby counsel obstructed and manipulated his relationship with his expert witness.

“(Amy Jones) has been violating my right to confidentiality and manipulating me in order to help the prosecutor ever since she was assigned to me by the court,” Grimnes wrote in a motion.

Jones denied the claims in Grimnes’ motion that she obstructed any access of Grimnes to his expert witness and denied she had contact with one of the jurors who was her brother’s boss.

Jones said she had never met her brother’s boss.

Grimnes also accused the Skagit County Community Justice Center of obstructing his access to briefings and case files.

Grimnes said he wasn’t “going to play … stupid little games” in order to obtain access to his files.

He asked Stiles for more time to prepare for his sentencing because he said he was not provided records to prepare for the hearing.

Judge Stiles denied Grimnes’ request for more time, saying “this has gone on long enough.”