By Gwyneth Gibby
Gazette-Times reporter | Posted: Tuesday, April 17, 2007 12:00 am
In a tense and crowded courtroom, a former Oregon State University student was sentenced Monday for shooting a homeless man outside an Oregon State University fraternity in October.
In March, Josh Grimes, 20, of Glide pleaded guilty to unlawful use of a weapon and third-degree assault for shooting Dennis Sanderson. The shooting took place in an alley behind Grimes' fraternity, Alpha Gamma Rho.
Benton County Circuit Court Judge David Connell sentenced Grimes to a total of 150 days in jail, 400 hours of community service to be completed at a homeless shelter and three years of supervised probation. He must also pay $3,000 in fines, plus restitution to Sanderson and court fees.
District Attorney John Haroldson asked the court to impose a sentence of five years in prison. Oregon has a mandatory minimum sentence of five years for a crime committed using a gun. When the crime is a first offense, the court can impose a shorter sentence. Until the Oct. 14 incident, Grimes had no criminal record.
In an impassioned statement, Haroldson said he asked for the mandatory gun minimum because Grimes shot Sanderson for sport. According to accounts from Grimes and other fraternity members that were noted in police reports, Grimes saw Sanderson going through a garbage bin in the alley behind Alpha Gamma Rho. A friend who was in the fraternity said Grimes went "flying by," saying to get his gun and go with him. The two then went to a room overlooking the alley, Grimes saying there was a "hobo out there." At that point Grimes shot and hit Sanderson.
"In Benton County, if you shoot a person for sport," Haroldson said, "you go to prison."
Grimes has maintained that he did not intend to hit Sanderson.
"This was not something that we've done for sport," he said in court Monday. "My intention was never to harm Mr. Sanderson - but it did."
Other factors Haroldson mentioned were the fact that after Grimes realized he hit Sanderson, rather than call 911 or make an anonymous call to police to get help, Grimes and his friend left the house and went to get pizza. When questioned by police, Grimes lied about his involvement in the shooting. It was not until police had conducted a full investigation lasting almost a month, and confronted Grimes with their knowledge of his guilt, that he admitted what he had done.
"He shot him like a sniper," Haroldson said. "He was shooting at someone who was the most vulnerable person he could pick."
Haroldson reminded the court that a healthy society is measured by how the weakest members are treated. Homeless people are often simply invisible and sometimes the victims of brutal and even lethal violence, he said, recalling the death of Mark Miller, a homeless man beaten to death in Corvallis in 2005.
"I'd like to apologize first and foremost to Mr. Sanderson," Grimes said, turning and looking at Sanderson.
He said he also apologized to his family, to Oregon State University and to the community for the negative light he had shed on them by his actions.
Grimes became emotional as he told Connell how much the ordeal had cost his family.
"I beg for probation, because I don't think my family can deal with me in prison," he said.
Sanderson chose not to make a statement to the court.
Sixteen people wrote letters to the court asking to spare Grimes from prison. Person after person, friends, former teachers and employers said Grimes was a hard worker with a strong moral sense.
Pastor Mike Miller of the Glide Baptist Church said he had received calls from members of the community asking, "Mike, was that our Josh I read about in the newspaper?"
Several called his actions "stupid" or "foolish."
"I don't think it would do any good for this young man, who has grown up in a sheltered environment," wrote Kurt Sorenson, the School Resource Officer of the Sutherlin Police Department, "to be immersed into a culture of drug abuse and hatred."
Connell said what Grimes did was completely unacceptable.
"You may well have permanently injured or killed (Sanderson) by your actions," he said.
Connell said that as he thought about whether to sentence Grimes to prison or not, one question he asked himself was, "Is this the kind of person our prisons are built for?" Grimes' shooting Sanderson would indicate the answer was "Yes."
But he also looked at some mitigating factors. The one that stood out for Connell was Grimes' youth - he was 19 at the time of the shooting.
While respecting Connell's decision, Haroldson disagreed with his reasoning.
"I don't think the age of the shooter makes a difference to the person who's being shot," he said.
The courtroom benches were packed with friends and family of both Grimes and Sanderson. Sanderson said he has no biological family living, but the friends who came to support him, many of whom are also homeless, were his family now. Grimes was taken into custody at the close of the hearing. Tearful family members followed him out. They declined to comment on the sentence.
Sanderson's friends were angry, some of them were also in tears.
"This is wrong," said Marlene Seals. "I think this is a very cavalier attitude toward the homeless."
"It's the difference between being rich and being poor," Sanderson said.
Associate Pastor Paul Boling of the First Christian Church, whose ministry includes many of the homeless people in Corvallis, said he understood the anger and frustration.
"Our homeless community feels betrayed by the system," he said. "God gives preferential treatment for the poor. I think God requires that."
But he doesn't see that being carried out right now, with so many social services being cut and a lack of equal justice in the courts.
"What I want to know is," Sanderson said, "where does a 19-year-old kid learn that much hate?"