PORT ANGELES — With a gallery of first responders looking on, James Edward “Butch” Sweet was sentenced Tuesday to 37 years in prison for a shootout with law enforcement near Port Angeles in May 2016.
Sweet, 38, had pleaded guilty to first- and second-degree assault with a deadly weapon for firing at four officers and endangering a civilian after a high-speed chase and traffic collision on U.S. Highway 101 and Monroe Road on the morning of May 28, 2016. None of the officers were seriously wounded; no civilians were hurt.
“If I could take it all back I would, and I’m sorry to everybody involved,” Sweet said at his sentencing.
Clallam County Superior Court Judge Erik Rohrer imposed the 444-month sentence as recommended in a Feb. 6 plea agreement.
If he serves the full sentence, Sweet will be 75 when released from prison.
The two-hour hearing was attended by more than two dozen law enforcement officers and fire department personnel.
“This man attempted to murder police officers,” said Port Angeles Police Officer Whitney Fairbanks, who was Sweet’s first target.
“He has and will continue to be a violent criminal,” she said. “He should be subject to the highest penalty that this court can impose for his crimes against our community.”
State Patrol investigators said Sweet fled in a 1990 Toyota Camry after Fairbanks tried to initiate a routine traffic stop and reached speeds of 60 mph in a 40-mph zone.
Sweet crashed the car into a vehicle driven by Patrick Brady at the Highway 101-Monroe Road intersection and opened fire on Fairbanks from close range, the State Patrol said.
Fairbanks returned fire, holding Sweet at bay until Officer Dallas Maynard, Sgt. Kori Malone and Clallam County Sheriff’s Sgt. Shaun Minks arrived.
Sweet was injured in a subsequent shootout with the four officers, all of whom provided victim impact statements to the court.
After he was hit, Sweet picked up his .38-caliber revolver and fired two more rounds at the officers, investigators said.
“Mr. Sweet says ‘Just kill me! Just kill me!’ ” Clallam County Chief Criminal Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Michele Devlin said.
“The defendant endangered the lives of the entire community. Anyone driving by at that time could have been shot by a stray bullet from his firearm, or law enforcement’s firearms when they were trying to control his actions.
“He wanted to die, but he wanted to take as many people out with him as he possibly could,” Devlin said.
Devlin read a transcript from a recorded jailhouse phone call in which Sweet said: “I had murder on my mind.”
Sweet said that comment was taken out of context, saying it was in response to people who had robbed his family.
Sweet had been on state supervision after pleading guilty in December 2014 to attempting to elude a pursuing police vehicle and heroin possession.
He was convicted of menacing in Colorado after fleeing from police while armed with a firearm in 2003.
Sweet said he had been “up for days and high on drugs” before the shootout.
“That’s still not an excuse, and I’m not trying to make it an excuse,” Sweet said.
“I was in full-blown relapse and using,” Sweet said, adding that he had recently lost his father and was “in a bad way.”
“If I could take it back, I would take it all back,” he said.
Fairbanks a hero
Maynard told Rohrer that he had a “sinking sensation of helplessness” after seeing blood dripping from Fairbanks’ arm after the shootout, not knowing the extent of her injuries.
“I consider Officer Fairbanks to be a hero for facing Sweet by herself after being ambushed,” Maynard said.
Whitney Fairbanks had been on patrol for six months when Sweet shot at her from about 8 feet away.
Her father, Brian Fairbanks, looked directly at Sweet and repeated: “You are a coward.”
Fairbanks’ mother, U.S. Forest Service Officer Kristine Fairbanks, was killed while on duty on a Forest Service Road near Sequim on Sept. 20, 2008. She was 51. Her assailant was killed later that night, police said.
Malone asked the judge to impose a longer sentence for Sweet, saying the charges were “not even close to being as severe as his actions were that day.”
“He endangered the lives of not only my officers, but every person on the road in that area and everyone in the vicinity of that intersection,” Malone said.
Whitney Fairbanks said Sweet had been given “too many opportunities to victimize communities.
“Sweet has decided to take a plea deal, which I appreciate, but that is because he wants to have a life after prison,” the officer said.
“But why should he be able to do that when he tried to take my life?”
Whitney Fairbanks said it was a “miracle” that she and Sweet survived the shootout.
“He is not a victim of society,” Whitney Fairbanks said.
“He has been given every chance to change his lifestyle but he has chosen to be a criminal.”
Port Angeles Police Chief Brian Smith said the shootout resulted in $67,000 in overtime costs for the department in June 2016, about two-thirds more than normal.
“James Sweet’s behavior — that behavior that starts with his attempt to kill Officer Fairbanks — basically takes our whole law enforcement system down for a period of time,” Smith said.
“We had substantial fatigue. We had the normal challenge of people working under a difficult situation.
“It had a major impact on the ability for us to provide police services to our community,” Smith added.
Clallam County Sheriff Bill Benedict took umbrage with the notion that drugs caused Sweet to shoot at officers.
“It’s not that,” Benedict said, looking directly at the defendant. “It’s you, Mr. Sweet. You’re just a bad person.”
“We don’t want you in our community,” Benedict added. “We don’t want you endangering our law enforcement officers or our civilians. Good luck in jail.”
Defense attorney Alex Stalker of Clallam Public Defender read an excerpt from a pre-sentencing report that described Sweet’s troubled childhood and early exposure to drugs and violence.
“Mr. Sweet has and has had for the vast majority of his life a drug problem,” Stalker said.
“This is not offered as an excuse. This is not something that he blames his actions on. Rather, it is offered as an explanation for his actions.”
Stalker asked the court to follow the recommended sentence to give his client the “possibility of dying outside of prison.”
Rohrer said he could find no reason to deviate from the recommended sentence.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 56450, or at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.