January 11, 2017 at 3:19 p.m.
Judge deems crimes in standoff case too severe for probation, jail time
Lynne man draws prison sentence
Judge deems crimes in standoff case too severe for probation, jail time
Kenneth S. Welsh drew the prison sentence despite the existence of a plea agreement between district attorney Michael Schiek and defense attorney Rodman Streicher recommending a probation sentence with some jail time.
Welsh was charged with attempted first-degree intentional homicide, a class B felony, attempted first-degree reckless injury, a class D felony, and misdemeanor possession of a firearm while intoxicated and misdemeanor battery (domestic abuse) in the incident.
As part of the plea agreement, the first count was amended to first-degree recklessly endangering safety and the last charge was amended to operating a firearm while intoxicated, to which he pled no contest on Sept. 20, 2016. The other two charges were dismissed in exchange for his no contest pleas.
According to the criminal complaint, Welsh's wife Mary Butler called 9-1-1 at approximately 11:20 a.m. April 19. She said she shot her husband "through the shoulder" and that he was now threatening to blow up the couple's house "if anyone showed up at the residence." When law enforcement arrived, she told them there had been a confrontation, there had been a struggle over a gun inside of the residence and that she had shot Mr. Welsh. As she was leaving the residence to back out of the driveway, Welsh had shot at her.
She told deputies that her husband was distraught after receiving a notice that the couple were to lose their house.
Butler was the only witness to testify at the sentencing hearing Friday. She denied that she was a victim in the incident and pleaded with Bloom to go along with the plea agreement. She also said that there were numerous inconsistencies in the police report attached to the original criminal complaint. Welsh made the same assertion in a letter to both Bloom and Schiek a couple of days before the hearing.
"I do know Ken did not disconnect the gas," she said from the witness stand. "I went to turn on the furnace later (the day of the incident) and it started right up."
Bloom offered Welsh the opportunity to change his plea before Friday's hearing began and take the case to a jury, but Welsh declined the offer.
"There are a number of things in the police report that I would like to say they don't go in the right direction," Butler said. "One of them was that the bullet penetrated the window; there was no penetration of the window whatsoever. I didn't even know about it until about an hour later when the police officer came to talk to me and they pointed it out. I had no idea. There was no blood on the car, that was in the police report."
She also took exception to the claim that her husband filled the house with propane gas to blow it up if officers approached.
"The gas in the house was not disconnected. I went to turn on the furnace later (the day of the incident) and it started right up," she said. "What they (officers) smelled was sulfur in the basement. We had been having a leakage problem in the basement and the water is very sulfury."
Due to the family's continued financial problems and her health concerns, she told the court she needs her husband at home.
"I need Ken home, he's a good man. My God, he would never hurt anyone," Butler said. "I'm not afraid of him. I've never been afraid of him. It was just a fluke what happened."
In his statement to the court, Schiek noted Butler's lack of cooperation made it difficult to prosecute the case.
"It is hard to deal with a victim that will not accept what happened, and now has recanted and disbelieves everything she originally said," Schiek said, before recounting the events leading up to the Special Response Team having to use bean bag rounds to subdue Welsh. He also said Welsh shot a clock and a smoke detector inside the house, then shot at Butler as she was backing away from the house in their car.
"It's not a fluke, judge, it was a violent domestic incident," Schiek said. "It's very fortunate that this didn't end in a tragedy."
Streicher pointed out that his client has only a possession of THC charge from many, years ago on his criminal record. He said Welsh has a drinking problem along with stress and anger issues that were made worse by the news about the loss of his home. Streicher recommended probation and counseling and argued the 262 days Welsh has already served is ample punishment for his crime.
"I do understand, and I don't want to say that lightly, because what Mr. Welsh and his family were going through, circumstantially at this time, could cause any number of people to have a boiling over point," he said. "Not necessarily to the point that happened in this case, but getting a one-month notice to get out of your home because you're about to get evicted from the home you had almost built with your bare hands, that's huge."
"I don't believe that Mr. Welsh is not safe to put back into the community," he added. "This is absolutely a probation case. What we had in this case was a combination of excess alcohol consumption, serious financial stress, Mr. Welsh not taking his medications and having access to firearms. Clearly, in retrospect, that was a recipe for disaster."
Given his chance to speak, Welsh made a short statement apologizing for his actions.
"I am sorry this has gotten as out of hand as it has," he said. "Mr. Streicher has done a good job of summing up how things happened."
Before handing down his sentence, Bloom said he did not believe that Welsh was a threat to the community, but took issue with the defendant's statement that his actions were exaggerated in the police report. He also cited the gravity of the offense as one of the three factors he had to take into account when fashioning a sentence.
He repeatedly reminded Welsh that he shot at his wife as she was backing out of the driveway, and dismissed his claim that he was only trying to disable the vehicle. He called this "the most troubling" component of the case.
"I'm not mechanic, but I know you don't disable a vehicle by shooting it in the windshield," Bloom said. "You disable a vehicle by shooting it in the engine block or the tires."
The judge also said the understood that Butler's change of heart since the days after the incident impacted how Schiek has handled the case.
"His disagreement with how the case is characterized by Ms. Butler and the defendant is appropriate," Bloom said. "It's not up to the victim to determine what should happen to a person who points a firearm at another person and pulls the trigger, where the only thing that stopped this from being a full blown homicide was potentially luck."
He then read the legal definition of first-degree reckless endangering safety and said that pointing a weapon at someone "who is withdrawing and pulling the trigger" definitely meets that definition.
As a result, he concluded that probation was not warranted in this case.
"What does it say to Mr. Welsh, to Ms. Butler, or to anyone who is paying attention to this case that a person can fire a weapon, a firearm, at a withdrawing individual and coming relatively close to hitting them, and they are placed on probation? What does it say to Mr. Welsh, to Ms. Butler, or to anyone who is paying attention to this case that a person who engages in an activity knowingly that creates an unreasonable and substantial risk of death or great bodily harm to another under circumstances that show utter disregard for human life, and have them placed on probation?" Bloom said. "Your conduct was far too grave, far too serious, in my judgment, to warrant probation."
After Bloom sentenced Welsh to prison, to be followed by two years extended supervision, Butler started crying, and Welsh pleaded with Bloom to defer entry of judgment in a last ditch effort to gain probation.
"I think the evidence is stacked a little against me," Welsh said. "I think the evidence is stacked too much - I don't disagree that the situation is not grave - it's being made out to be more than it was."
He then said that Bloom had only read the police report and heard the testimony of the detective, and that he had not been given a chance to tell his version of events.
"It was eight months after that the pre-sentence investigation report that your honor even knew of anything to the contrary to the police report," Welsh insisted.
He added that his wife did not know what was in the police report until he sent her his copy of the document.
"She never signed it, she never knew anything about it," he said. "I don't even think she knew it existed."
After letting Welsh have his last say, Bloom ruled on his request with just four words.
"That request is denied," Bloom replied before leaving the bench and ending the hearing.
Jamie Taylor may be reached at jamie@ rivernewsonline.com.
Comments:
You must login to comment.