Emotions pour out at sentencing
Published: July 22, 2008
By PAUL DAQUILANTE
Of the News-Register
EUGENE - Jesse McLaughlin told Derek Madsen that he was a college student, having a blast at school, relishing his work on the side and simply enjoying life before the Veneta man mistook him for a skunk last October 13 and shot him in the neck, leaving him a quadriplegic.
That was just part of the message the McMinnville High grad delivered to Madsen during a compelling video presentation, which featuring his mother standing at his side reading his lips and repeating his words out loud.
Madsen pleaded guilty Monday afternoon to one count of third-degree assault, a Class C felony. Following the sentencing hearing, Lane County Circuit Judge Gregory Foote ordered him to serve three years probation, complete 150 hours of community service and pay $20,000 in compensation to the Jesse McLaughlin Special Needs Trust.
Foote gave Madsen 30 days to make the payment, but said he wanted to see it completed sooner than that. Defense attorney Gregory Veralrud of Eugene said Madsen has taken out a loan enabling him to take care of the financial obligation immediately.
As part of the plea agreement between the prosecution and the defense, a charge of hunting from a vehicle, a Class A misdemeanor, was dismissed.
Madsen's community service time will be spent working with physically disabled individuals. He will also speak to groups about firearms safety and what can happen when you act irresponsibly.
He could be released from probation a year early if he strictly adheres to its conditions, which include a ban on possessing firearms.
Deputy District Attorney Erik Hasselman said there is nothing the law can do to repair the damage that's been inflicted on McLaughlin and his McMinnville family.
"We can't fix this," Foote agreed. But he said, "We can hope for the best. He may have a better chance than we think."
Foote told Jesse's father, Joe, present in the courtroom for the plea and sentencing, that he would assist the family in any way possible, enlisting any agencies that might be able to help at any stage.
McLaughlin, 21, was a junior business administration major at the University of Oregon when he was shot in a rural part of Lane County while playing paintball with school and work friends.
According to the Lane County Sheriff's Office, he was hiding in some roadside brush when Madsen drove by in a Jeep.
"He saw what he thought was something digging by a log," Hasselman said of Madsen. "There were two men hiding behind that log.
"Jesse McLaughlin positioned himself to look over the log. He was wearing all the protective gear."
As Madsen drove through the area in a Jeep on a four-wheeling outing, his attention was drawn by movement near the log. He stopped and squeezed off one round from a varmint rifle.
He told investigators he thought he was shooting at a skunk, but it was actually McLaughlin, now paralyzed from the neck down and living in an adult foster care home in Aloha. McLaughlin is dependent on a ventilator for oxygen and a feeding tube for nourishment, plus a machine that prevents him from aspirating.
"Third-degree assault charges that he recklessly caused serious physical injury," Hasselman said of Madsen. "There definitely are factors that indicate the act was not committed intentionally. When he realized what had happened, he fell to his knees and started vomiting."
The prosecutor said it would have been extremely difficult to transport Jesse to Eugene for the proceeding, and care for his needs adequately in the process, so he and his mother, Melissa, taped his message from the adult foster care home where he's staying. It was played on a large wall monitor located in the front of the courtroom.
Foote watched intently. Madsen watched and listened to what Jesse had to say, bowing his head at times.
Melissa explained that her son can't vocalize or swallow because his esophagus is closed shut. That situation might improve in the future, but it's not possible to address at this time.
During the presentation, she stood in front of Jesse. As he mouthed words to her, she repeated them.
"Since October of last year I've been stuck like this," he said. "I can't talk. I'm fed by a can through a tube in my stomach. I can't taste or smell. I can't feel or control anything below my neck. I can barely move my head."
He explained how he spent months in the Intensive Care Unit at Sacred Heart Medical Center in Eugene, followed by periods of various forms of rehabilitation that are ongoing.
He spoke of how his parents and his two brothers, Aaron and Isaac, live a good distance from him. He doesn't get to see them and or his many friends as often as he would like.
"This makes it hard to do things that are fun," Jesse said. "I sit in my room and stare outside at the back of a shed. That's my entertainment for the day."
He said no one knows where the rest of his life will take him.
"That's all because of Mr. Madsen," Jesse said. "That's all I really have to say. I do not feel like he deserves any more of my time or effort."
Melissa then turned to the camera and said Jesse and everyone else in the family faces a long road ahead. But in her book, she said, a long road is better than no road.
"We have lots of questions and no answers," she said. "There was no brain damage, so he's still Jesse. We're glad he's with us and we're committed to being with him."
An emotional Joe McLaughlin characterized his son as a young man who was full of life, always found humor in life and enjoyed every moment of life before the shooting that forever altered his life. He said Jesse was a high school athlete and a summer camp counselor who was loved by the campers.
"Car racing, backpacking, U of O business major ... compassionate, living, always thinking of others, just a fun to be around kind of guy," his father said.
In the days following the shooting, Joe said people coming together in prayer, love and hope for Jesse that he may live, be healed and have a chance to lead a productive life are factors largely responsible for his son being alive today.
"Many times the doctors visited us with the idea of pulling the plug," Joe said. "But Jesse fought a heroic battle to hold onto life, to live on the planet a little bit longer, to be with family and friends another day."
He said Jesse told his parents that clinging to life was "so hard, so hard." He said his son battled week after week, in the months after the shooting, afraid to go to sleep at night for fear he wouldn't wake up again.
"I don't know how many times I have seen his eyes roll back in his head as that precious life slipped away," Joe said. "Then, with great precision, the hospital staff, his mother and myself all worked feverishly to get air back into his lungs so that he might live another day."
While Jesse lay in Sacred Heart Medical Center, Joe said he was approached by an acquaintance of the Madsen family, who told him they were actually wonderful people. He said he had never met them and didn't know what to think.
"Derek, you have some really big shoes to fill if you are even thinking about having children," the elder McLaughlin told him. "Starting with living consciously and compassionately in this world. Not just once in a while, but with each breath you take."
If that's all he takes with him, and passes it on to the next generation, he will be a hero in his eyes, he told Madsen.
So many times, Joe said, he has heard words like negligence, accidental, recklessness and endangerment used to describe what happened to his son. He said those words serve to soften what actually happened.
"You shot a fellow human being," he told Madsen. "That's reality, that's a fact, unsugarcoated.
"It was no accident that you pulled the trigger. Your finger didn't twitch. You didn't drop the gun. Pulling the trigger was a choice, a conscious act. You wanted to kill something, to end life of some form or another."
He criticized Madsen for not obeying hunting laws. He said had he simply gotten out of his vehicle, he would have heard and seen a group of individuals firing paint balls at each other.
"There are too many idiots out there nowadays doing the same thing, firing at anything that moves or looks like it could move," the elder McLaughlin said. "There are many former hunters refusing to go into the wilderness anymore because they fear for their lives."
He told the court his family has exhausted savings, retirement funds and credit lines to make Jesse's life a little better. He said his son deserves all that's out there.
"Derek gets to carry on as usual and Jesse pays the price," he said. "His family and the community pay the price. You tell me where there is justice in that? It seems like it is all going Derek Madsen's way."
Veralrud told the court what has happened to Jesse and his family is heartbreaking. He said not a day goes by when his client doesn't feel sorry for what happened, and said he has attended counseling sessions.
Foote asked Madsen if he had anything to say. He slowly turned toward Joe McLaughlin and apologized for his actions, saying he didn't know where to start.
"My apology, as deep as I can say it, can't go deep enough," Madsen said. "I don't sleep at night. I have nightmares. I hope you can accept this."
