ellmers sentencing

http://www.registerguard.com/csp/cms/sites/web/updates/16354707-55/story.csp

At 8:30 a.m. on June 30, 2009 in Courtroom 304 in the Lane County Courthouse (125 East Oak Street, Eugene, OR), Lane County Circus Court Judge Jack A[ss]. Billings sentenced Matthew Ellmers to 20 years in prison after Mr. Ellmers changed the pleas that he’d previously entered to the court regarding 2009-01803 and pled guilty to four counts of first degree manslaughter, one count of second degree assault, reckless driving and driving under the influence of intoxicants.

As a result of Ballot Measure 11 which was approved by Oregon voters in 1994, the minimum sentence for each of the four first degree manslaughter convictions is 10 years (or “120 months,” as Judge Billings put it). The minimum sentence for the second degree assault conviction is about five years. Lane County District Attorney David Vill requested a 45 year sentence. Defense attorney Brad Cascagnette requested 10 and noted that a person convicted of murder would be eligible for parole in 25 years.
Judge Billings, who almost always appears to have poured just a little too much Shlitz in his Cocoa Puffs prior to doling out justice in Room 304 decided 20 years was the appropriate compromise, 55% less than the 45 years requested by Deputy LCDA Vill. He gave no reason for why he sentenced Mr. Ellmers to 48 months apiece for causing the deaths of Heather Mulgrave (age 36), Nima Gibba (age 11), Connie Vermilyea (age 34 ) and Jaziah Vermilyea (age 10) jand causing permanent brain and other injuries to Jakobi Mulgrave (age 10) on January 21, 2009 at 9:06 p.m. at the corner of West Eleventh Avenue and Bertelsen Avenue in west Eugene.
Judge Billings noted that if Mr. Ellmers hadn’t changed his not guilty pleas, his lawyer Mr. Cascagnette would have requested a change in venue due to the extraordinary publicity given to the case. Judge Billings alleged that in his 36 years in the business, he had never seen this much media coverage of a trial (I guess he was too drunk during the trials of Diane Downs in 1984 and Roger Magana in 2004 to have noticed they received much more coverage than this one, for example, national media coverage, not just local coverage). Judge Billings repeatedly noted that he has not had a television in 20 years and did not hear about the t-boning of the Toyota Highlander by the Isuzu Trooper until the morning of January 22, 2009 when he read about it in the Eugene Register Guard.
Judge Billings admitted that his first thought when he read about Mr. Ellmers who had caused the death of four people was “There is no defense for this. The cars were smashed beyond recognition meaning he had to be going way over the speed limit. Someone had to have gone through a red light and it’s a very, very good bet it was him.” That is, Judge Billings repeatedly admitted that he judged Mr. Ellmers to be guilty on or about January 22, 2009.
Judge Billings noted that even if they interviewed 500 jurors, they’d be hard pressed to find six who would swear that they could be unbiased about the case. That is, Judge Billings repeatedly provided evidence suggesting that he was not fit to preside over this case and that it was unlikely that Mr. Ellmers could receive a fair trial in Lane County. Then he proceeded to dole out justice.
Jack Ass Billings sentenced Mr. Ellmers to 55% less than what Deputy LCDA Vill requested after listening to over an hour of testimony from the surviving family members of the four people killed and the father of the sole survivor, Jakobi Mulgrave. Judge Billings listened to Hogan Mulgrave describe the day in the hospital that Jakobi asked “Where’s mom?” and Mr. Mulgrave went into the bathroom, got down on his knees and prayed for the strength to answer the question and then went back, held Jakobi on his lap and told him what had happened. Mr. Mulgrave described how Jakobi shook on his lap when he heard. He said he would not wish the experience on anyone on the planet. Mr. Mulgrave described that as a result of Jakobi’s head injury, he would forget what he’d been told. Mr. Mulgrave and others described how they had to repeatedly explain to Jakobi what happened, because he would forget from day to day.
But Judge Billings was not as moved by the testimony of Mr. Mulgrave and Connie Vermilyea’s father, step-mother and grandmother as he was by the behavior of Mr. Ellmers. When Mr. Ellmers gave his passionate, heart-felt, heart-wrenching prepared speech to the victims’ families, he asked if he could turn and face them.
Judge Billings noted that in 36 years in “the business” no one had ever made this request. http://www.kval.com/news/local/49521292.html
Clearly, Judge Billings was deeply moved by the decision by Mr. Ellmers to face the victims’ families for the 3 minutes he spoke. As a result, he went extraordinarily easy on the drunk driver (perhaps thinking “there but for the grace of God go I”) and sentenced Mr. Ellmers to 48 months for every life he destroyed directly and I don’t know, maybe 12-20 months for every life he damaged indirectly.
In 2001, Judge Vile Lyle Velure sentenced Jeff Luers to more than 20 years in prison for politically motivated arson that destroyed three SUVs at Romania dealership in Eugene. The Oregon Court of Appeals overturned the sentence in February, 2007 and in February, 2008, Judge Billings resentenced Mr. Luers to 10 years. That is, Judge Billings sentenced a man who caused about $40,000 in property damage (that was covered by insurance) to 10 years and he sentenced a man who killed four people, physically harmed a fifth and emotionally damaged dozens more to 20 years. Killing four people is about twice as bad as causing $40,000 in property damage, according to Judge Billings.
Mr. Mulgrave has filed a civil suit in Lane County Circuit Court against the bowling alley and the Nile strip club for serving a visibly drunk Mr. Ellmers. He has not yet named the City of Eugene for the decision by EPD officer Jeremy Sullivan to purchase a slurpee at the 7-11 at Eleventh and Bertelsen instead of responding to the 911 call from the Nile about Mr. Ellmers. (For some reason, Mr. Vill showed the video of the crash taken by the camera in Officer Sullivan’s empty, stationary patrol car in the Seven Eleven parking lot while Officer Sullivan was inside the Seven Eleven instead of responding to the 911 call.)
The Eugene City Council could be sued for its September, 2007 decision to amend the Eugene City Code to make it encourage drunk driving even more than it did before. The Lane County District Attorney and Circuit Court repeatedly underprosecute and undersentence drunk drivers. They should be sued also.
I hope that Mr. Mulgrave submits a tort notice to the city of Eugene and Lane County within 180 days of January 21, 2009 announcing his intention to sue them in United States District Court for their deliberate indifference to the constitutional rights of Jakobi and Heather Mulgrave, Connie and Jaziah Vermilyea and Nima Gabba.