Guilty on all counts

Published: April 21, 2005
By KATIE WILLSON
Of the News-Register


Robert James Stamper Jr. - a former federal prison guard who abducted, raped and strangled a McMinnville woman and left for dead in the woods - was convicted Wednesday night of all 17 counts against him by a jury that needed just five hours to resolve his fate.

In proceedings this morning, he waived his Blakely rights to a jury ruling on consolidation of counts and proceeded to an immediate sentencing hearing.

The prosecution made a case for 1,000 months in prison - more than 83 years, amounting to natural life for a 28-year-old man. The defense held out for 42 to 45 years, keeping him incarcerated into his 70s.

Judge Cal Tichenor settled on 740 months - 61 years, eight months - just as the News-Register was going to press at mid-day.

Due to initial confusion, the News-Register's print edition computed the sentence wrongly at 70 years.

The drama began to play out about 7:30 Wednesday night. Following an afternoon of uneasy jokes and shaky laughter, onlookers regrouped in Tichenor's courtroom at that hour to hear the former longtime prosecutor read the verdict.

Most were there to support the victim.

One offered a supportive shoulder. Others bowed their heads and breathed deeply.

When Tichenor strode to the bench, verdict in hand, silence enveloped the courtroom.

The jury, he announced to the hushed crowd, had found Stamper guilty of five counts of attempted aggravated murder, three counts of first-degree kidnapping, two counts of first-degree rape, two counts of first-degree sodomy and one count each of attempted murder, first-degree burglary, second-degree assault, fourth-degree assault and attempted first-degree sodomy.

Following his reading of the verdict, onlookers shuffled out into the glare of television cameras and crush of waiting reporters, mostly from Portland. They seemed satisfied that the defense had failed in its two goals in pressing ahead with a trial rather than accepting a plea bargain: avoiding conviction on the attempted murder counts and holding the rape, kidnapping and sodomy convictions to one count each.

For her part, the 19-year-old victim grabbed and hugged District Attorney Brad Berry and McMinnville police detective Dave Palen by turns, offering each a word of thanks. Then she was allowed to exit with her family via a back stairwell, in order to avoid the waiting media.

Thirteen of the 17 counts carried mandatory minimum prison terms ranging from 90 to 120 months - 7 1/2 to 10 years.

The law mandated the attempted murder counts all be merged into one for sentencing purposes. But Stamper faced the possibility of separate and consecutive terms on the rest of the convictions, and that's what he ended up getting from Tichenor, known as a hard-liner on sex offenses.

A former guard at the federal prison in Sheridan, known as FCI Sheridan, the 28-year-old McMinnville resident could have avoided immediate sentencing by forcing jury involvement. However, through his attorney, he opted to waive that right.

Under a U.S. Supreme Court ruling handed down last year, jurors hold sole right to decide whether aggravating factors may be considered in the imposition of a sentence exceeding the norm for a given offense. A judge cannot unilaterally usurp that power.

Stamper's case differed from Blakely v. Washington, which produced the ruling.

In the Blakely case, the court ruled that adding prison time for aggravating factors is a decision for a jury rather than a judge to make, under the fourth amendment grant of the right to trial by jury. In Stamper's case, the question was whether three counts of kidnapping, two counts of rape and two counts of sodomy should be sentenced consecutively or concurrently.

It was not clear whether the Blakely ruling should be interpreted to cover that determination as well, but Berry said the prosecution felt it would be safer to assume Stamper has a right to submit the matter to the jury if he wished. So it gave him that option.

After Stamper waived his right to jury involvement, the parties agreed to an immediate sentencing hearing before Tichenor. The defense made a case for mitigation and the prosecution a case for aggravation, each presenting the evidence and witnesses it felt would most help its cause.

Tichenor's decision ensures Stamper will be put behind the prison bars he once tended until the age of 98, should he live that long.