Source:
SeattlePI.comThe man accused of killing Seattle Sierra Club worker Shannon Harps near her Capitol Hill home has been sentenced to 35 years in prison.
James A. Williams, 50, pleaded guilty last week to first-degree murder in the New Year's Eve 2007 stabbing. After hearing from Harps' family and friends, King County Superior Court Judge Palmer Robinson on Thursday sentenced Williams to the lengthy prison term.
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Harps, 31, was stabbed to death in the stairwell of her apartment building. Police later found Williams' DNA on a kitchen knife found nearby, and arrested him shortly thereafter.
Due to an earlier criminal conviction, Williams was living in a home for extremely mentally ill offenders when the attack occurred. A community corrections officer supervising him wrote that Williams "was barely able to hold himself together" the day Harps was stabbed to death.
Read more:
http://www.seattlepi.com/local/406657_Harps28.html
This sad story makes me wonder if "mainstreaming" extremely mentally ill patients in communities is really in the best interest of the communities or the patients themselves. Mr. Williams had a long history of schizophrenia and violent crime. I think that patients this severe should be institutionalized for their own well-being and the safety of the communities.