47-time felon gets 5 years in prison for stealing items from Spokane Valley truck stop

A 47-time convicted felon was sentenced Friday to nearly five years in prison for stealing items from a Spokane Valley truck stop in 2023, according to the Spokane County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office.

A jury in June found 61-year-old Shannon B. Morley guilty of two counts of second-degree organized retail theft, the office said in a news release.

Surveillance video at the Broadway Avenue truck stop showed a man, later determined to be Morley, using a key to open an electronic cabinet and removing a GPS device valued at nearly $1,000 before putting it in his pocket and walking out of the store in March 2023, according to court documents and information presented at trial.

Morley stole another device from the business two months later, prosecutors said.

At Friday’s sentencing, prosecutors detailed Morley’s extensive criminal history, including 47 adult felonies and additional misdemeanors, and asked for a sentence above the standard range. The defense requested a Drug Offender Sentencing Alternative, arguing that Morley and the community would benefit from him engaging in drug treatment.

Spokane County Superior Court Judge Rachelle Anderson denied Morley’s DOSA request, citing his criminal history. Anderson sentenced him to the high end of the standard sentence range, or 57 months.