Savoeun Keo, mother of victim Sophea Sun, crying outside the court after the verdict.
Dimitri Sidorchuk, second from left, walks to the courtroom Thursday with his attorney Peter Friedman, left, at the King County Courthouse in Seattle.
Plea deal comes after 2 trials and 2 hung juries in Skyway shootings
By CLAUDIA ROWE
A man who once faced more than eight decades in prison for shooting three people to death and seriously injuring three more, will walk free Friday after spending a year and a half in jail.
Dimitri Sidorchuk, 24, kept his head bowed and declined to speak in a King County courtroom, where he was sentenced Thursday for second-degree manslaughter and third-degree assault.
In the gallery behind him, the friends and family of his victims, most of them Cambodian-Americans, shook their heads and sobbed.
Initially, Sidorchuk was charged with murder for the deaths of Sovintha Nhem, 23, and Sophea Sun, 20; manslaughter for the accidental death of his friend, William Shane Belk, 28; and assault for injuring three other young men in a confrontation in July 2006.
But two juries in two separate trials -- considering arguments that Sidorchuk had acted in self-defense -- were unable to come to a verdict, and last month prosecutors agreed to a plea bargain on much-reduced charges.
Superior Court Judge Paris Kallas imposed the recommended 26-month sentence but under the guidelines could have added another eight months.
"It's over; it's done," said Deputy Prosecutor Don Raz, at the conclusion of a case that had frustrated attorneys on both sides, as well as the judge. Raz said that ultimately, the plea deal was preferable to risking another hung jury.
With credit for time served and "good time" figured in, Sidorchuk will walk free, said his attorney, Peter Friedman.
"He feels a sense of relief now that this is over," Friedman said. "The whole incident, he feels, is a tragedy."
The shooting stemmed from a confrontation that began when Nhem, who had been asked to leave a Skyway bowling alley and casino with his friends, wandered into the yard of Sidorchuk's nearby rental home. The two exchanged increasingly heated words -- with Sidorchuk and Belk hurling racial slurs and Nhem's group shouting threats in return -- until Nhem and his four friends backed a car into Sidorchuk's driveway.
At that, Sidorchuk and Belk opened fire with semiautomatic weapons, shooting more than 20 rounds into the car. None of the young men inside were armed.
Deputies who later rushed to the scene discovered a marijuana-growing operation inside Sidorchuk's home, but no testimony about that was allowed at trial. This omission, as well as the double hung juries and the final agreement that Sidorchuk would be given little more than a two-year sentence, infuriated supporters of the victims.
"I'd get longer than that for shoplifting! No justice was served," shouted a man in the gallery, who was promptly removed from the courtroom.
Court officers had prepared for such outbursts and warned the audience against them, but Savoeun Keo, the mother of Sun, was unable to control her rage.
"This justice system is not just," the Cambodia immigrant sobbed. "Killed -- and nothing. It's not fair."
Many of those watching the proceedings said they believed that the courts had discriminated against the Cambodian youths in favor of a white defendant.
"If you're a dark-skinned person trying to live in a white-skinned world, justice is not on your side," said Nan Chot, a cousin. "I have learned that from this trial."
But justice, said Sidorchuk's attorney, is about more than "the primal desire for revenge."
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