By Christine Clarridge
The Seattle Times
An inmate who beat a King County corrections officer unconscious was sentenced Friday to 25 years in prison before a courtroom packed with corrections officers.
Sean Graham, 36, was convicted in a jury trial last year of first-degree assault for a 2011 attack on former corrections officer Gil Letrondo.
Graham, who apologized at the hearing, faced a standard sentence range of 17 to 23 years. But prosecutors asked for an exceptional sentence of 30 years, noting the victim was a law-enforcement officer and “vulnerable” because Graham continued to assault Letrondo after he was unconscious.
But Superior Court Judge Theresa Doyle sentenced Graham to the exceptional term of 25 years.
Jared Karstetter, a spokesman for the King County Corrections Guild and a former corrections officer, said a long sentence would “send a message to the inmate population” that such assaults would bear consequences.
He said the attack had a devastating impact on officers who already face “a very, very dangerous job where the rules of engagement have changed.”
Graham — whose first name has also been spelled Seon — was charged with first-degree assault in the attack on Letrondo and four counts of custodial assault for injuries sustained by four guards who struggled to control Graham in the aftermath, court documents show. Jurors found Graham guilty of three counts of custodial assault but found him not guilty on a fourth count.
According to court and jail records, Graham was in the Maleng Regional Justice Center in Kent on a first-degree-robbery charge awaiting trial on that case when he was accused of attacking Letrondo on Jan. 11, 2011.
Prosecutors said jail officers conducted a routine protective sweep of the cells two days before the attack and Letrondo found food inside the cell occupied by Graham.
Graham, who was housed alone in his cell 23 hours a day, was notified by Letrondo that he would lose his hour outside his cell as punishment for the rule violation, according to prosecutors.
In response, Graham swore at Letrondo and threatened to beat and kill him — threats Letrondo documented in a report written on Jan. 10, prosecutors said.
The next day, Letrondo and another officer were standing at the guard’s station when Graham rushed Letrondo from behind and punched him on the left side of his face and then in the head, causing Letrondo’s head to strike a window, knocking him unconscious, prosecutors said during trial.
As Letrondo lay on the floor, Graham stomped him, prosecutors said.
Letrondo has not worked as a corrections officer since the attack.