Spokane man sentenced to 4 years in prison for Spokane Valley hotel drug robbery that turned into fatal police standoff

A 43-year-old man was sentenced to four years in prison on Tuesday for his role in a Spokane Valley hotel robbery that escalated into a fatal police standoff in August 2022.

Christopher B. Gooch told U.S. District Court Judge Rosanna Peterson he was sorry for his actions and he’s thankful things didn’t get worse.

“I pay for it every day,” Gooch said.

Court records say Gooch asked longtime friend Christopher Jones to help him collect a debt last year. The two, along with 39-year-old Dominic Shears, headed to the Oxford Suites at 15015 E. Indiana Ave. in Spokane Valley, where they knocked on the hotel room door of Scott Banchero and Jamie Morris. The three entered the room and allegedly robbed them, court records said. Gooch later told police he didn’t want to be a part of it anymore, so he left the room and the three fled in a van.

Police were already surveying Banchero and Morris in a drug investigation when they received a call about a robbery. They started to follow the van when Shears dropped off Gooch and Jones, later detained by police, and kept driving. The three stole fentanyl, heroin and meth, court documents said.

The driver, identified by police as Shears, later crashed the van into a business on the corner of Sheridan Street and Third Avenue, a news release said. That’s when Shears started to fire shots at the responding officers. Two of them responded with gunfire as Shears barricaded himself into the van, the release said.

After a five-hour standoff, Shears came out of the van with a gun. A responding deputy and two other officers shot at him, and he was pronounced dead on the scene around 6 a.m.

Gooch was later indicted and charged with Hobbs Act robbery, a statute that makes it illegal to commit robbery or extortion that affects interstate commerce.

Under Washington law, victims of theft are awarded restitution, Peterson said. But she said she refuses to “award restitution to drug dealers.”

She also implied it seemed like Gooch didn’t know what he was getting himself into at the time.

Peterson mentioned Gooch has had a long history with the justice system. He was sent to jail at age 11, she said, and it clearly made an impact on him.

“I used to think that was a good deterrent,” Peterson said, calling the effects of incarceration without guidance “detrimental.”

“… That did not work. It caused a significant amount of harm to you,” she said.

Gooch agreed. He said the system doesn’t help people or teach someone how to be a member of society.

“There was no classes you could take to become a man. That’s what I was trying to do,” he said. “No one teaches you how to be an adult. … It’s not an easy life.”

Peterson said it was clear Gooch had a good support system, as his family was in court for his sentencing. They all wrote letters of support in favor of him, she said.

Gooch has served over a year in jail and will get credit for time served. As he left the courtroom, he waved at family members, who waved back with smiles.