We are in the King County Superior Court courtroom of Judge Michael Fox, where Brian Walsh has just been sentenced for the 2007 beating murder of “Benny” Reside (left), a mentally and physically disabled man who had been letting him stay in his apartment in Morgan Junction’s Cal-Mor Circle. This was the second part of a sentencing hearing that began October 17 (WSB courtroom coverage here), after Walsh pleaded guilty to second-degree murder (in a plea deal that we covered last summer). Prosecutors and family wanted the high end of the sentencing scale, 18 years, while defense argued for the low end, around 14. Reside’s sister Pam Reside Leach and brother-in-law Jeff Leach addressed the court again today (photo above shows Pam [left] directly addressing her brother’s killer [far right]), and for the first time, the killer, Brian Walsh, spoke as well, sobbing and asking the family’s forgiveness, reading from a handwritten statement. The judge is imposing the maximum possible sentence – 220 months, mostly, he says, because of the “absolute helplessness” of the victim, the unprovoked nature of the attack, and the savageness of the crime. More details from the courtroom – and the family’s reaction afterward (“It’s not a happy day,” Pam said) – will be added shortly. ADDED 12:38 PM: Read on for those details – what the family said, what the killer said, what the judge said:

As we have reported in previous coverage, this was a particularly brutal murder, and prosecutor Karissa Taylor recapped that succinctly near the start of today’s hearing: “This case is not the typical second-degree murder case, or a quick flash-in-the-plan incident. As the autopsy report reveals, it was a long, slow, intentional murder of a disabled man who could not defend himself. (Walsh) beat, hit, strangled, and stomped on Mr. Reside until he was dead, and after he was dead, continued to inflict damage on Ben’s body, cutting his neck with pieces of pottery.”

Taylor acknowledged that both killer and victim were extremely drunk at the time – one reason why the family reluctantly agreed to go for a plea bargain, out of concern a jury might be too lenient on Walsh given the circumstances (here’s our August interview with Pam and Jeff just before the official plea-bargain hearing).

The sentencing hearing was split into two parts because of a medical emergency for a member of the defense team; Pam and Jeff both spoke at the first session (WSB coverage here), and then again this morning.

Jeff’s remarks were brief, including: “A lot of the details and horrificness (of what happened), I wish we could make into wallpaper and put in Brian’s cell. … I hope the fragileness and vulnerability of Ben, and the impact on our family, affects your decision. I have a sense sometimes that there is supposed to be fairness in (such proceedings); there was no fairness to Benny — he was pleading for his life — and no fairness to Pam and Joey [the Leaches’ teenage son], who have to spend the rest of their lives coping with this. Brian, you have no idea what you have taken from Pam and Joey. I have watched my wife go through most of the stages of grief at all these hearings – through every one, I get to watch the shock and the sadness and the hurt and the anger as she goes through this rollercoaster ride from hell.”

Then, Pam, who had told the story so many times before of fighting to protect her little brother, who had developmental disabilities all his life and was persecuted even by his peers: “It’s been a long year and a half and I can’t get him back, but it would help me to know Brian was going someplace for a long time. (Benny) had a really hard life. He wasn’t given a full mental capacity. But he tried so hard (to overcome that) … People always took advantage of him. Someone he trusted, in the end, really let him down. [To Walsh] You should be really ashamed of yourself. You had no right to do what you did. I will never forgive you.”

Walsh’s lawyer then attempted to make the case that his client had an “unspeakable childhood” of abuse and has “battled mental illness on and off, all his life” as well as substance abuse. He recounted the fact that both killer and victim were “shockingly intoxicated, with extremely high blood alcohol levels (in the .30s – which is about four times the level considered legally drunk) the night of the murder.

Judge Fox interrupted at this point, noting “voluntary intoxication is generally not a defense to a crime in our state – is it appropriate to consider (this) as a mitigating factor in a sentencing hearing? Do you have any case law to cite?”

The defense lawyer appeared caught off guard by that and said he’d have to look something up. He summed up by asking, “Would anything be accomplished by a sentence of 18 years [the most possible in this case] that wouldn’t be accomplished by a sentence of 14 years? Mr. Walsh is likely to spend the rest of his time to live in jail – it’s unlikely he has a life expectancy of more than 20 more years, with alcoholism, health issues, mental health problems. How much of a life sentence do you want to impose?”

Walsh, who is in his mid-40s (as was his victim), then read a statement, the first time we have heard him speak in the hearings we have covered since this past summer: “Almost 20 months ago, on April 15th, 2007, I committed a horrible crime … I cannot explain what I did, except for mental illness and alcoholism … I came out of an alcoholic blackout. I would never have thought myself capable of committing such a crime.” (By this point, he was sobbing as he spoke.) “… For whatever reason it happened, I have to be held responsible for taking his life. I don’t know what is fair and just in sentencing for something such as this – I leave that up to you and the court to decide. … The world lost a kind and special person that day because of my actions, and for that I am sorry.”

Finally, Judge Fox. At first, he explained that criminal sentencing is not to be considered “the measure of the man that the victim was in life” and that it also is not meant to “start the healing process” for the victim’s family: “The purpose is to look at what occurred in the event, to consider what led up to the event, and to assess those factors in imposing a sentence that is fair and just, and also will protect the public.”

Judge Fox said Walsh’s lifetime of substance abuse was a “relatively minor factor” to consider. He noted that Walsh’s relationship with the victim “would appear to have started and continued so that (he) might avail himself of some of the financial security that Mr. Reside had because he was so terribly disabled.”

He went on to recount his understanding of what happened: “Mr. Reside was a small, weak man, who was not only small and weak, but was significantly disabled. He was wheelchair-bound. The evidence in this case, rather than having any elements of a provoked attack or any kind of self-defense, indicates an entirely unprovoked assault on a helpless victim, and a brutal and savage series of assaults which led to the injuries that caused the death of Mr. Reside.”

With that, he announced he would impose “the top end of the (sentencing) range requested by the state,” 220 months – 18 years and 4 months, followed by up to 4 years on probation.

The Leach family and those who had come to support them moved out into the hallway, for hugs, and Pam spoke briefly with the media (besides WSB, a KIRO TV photographer was on hand, and reporters from the Times and P-I). She said she has one task left now: to buy a headstone for Benny, who is buried in a North Bend-area cemetery.

Previous WSB coverage of this case:
8/26/08: “My last fight for my brother”
8/27/08: Killer’s plea in Benny Reside murder case
10/17/08: 2-part sentencing begins for West Seattle man’s killer
4/15/07: Morgan Junction murder