Teen who killed hiker last year gets 30-day sentence

MOUNT VERNON — A teenage boy who fatally shot a hiker last summer while bear hunting on Sauk Mountain was sentenced Friday to 30 days in juvenile detention plus probation and community service that includes talking to hunting-safety students about what he did.

Skagit County Superior Court Judge Susan Cook told the families of both the victim and the boy, who was 14 at the time of the Aug. 2 shooting, that the sentence was designed to hold him accountable but also help him and others in the future.

The teen, now 15, of Concrete, was bear hunting with his 16-year-old brother when he fired a shot down a foggy slope and across a hiking trail at what he thought was a bear. The shot struck Pam Almli, 54, of Oso, in the head as she hiked with a friend.

Cook convicted the teen in June of second-degree manslaughter with a firearm after a weeklong trial. The sentence includes 30 days in juvenile detention, 12 months of probation and counseling, and 120 hours of community service, to include 40 with hunting-safety students.

"He can take this tragedy and ... use it to educate others so that there is less likelihood that this ever happens again," Cook said.

Before sentencing, the teen unfolded a piece of paper and read from it as he stood in front of the judge.

"I just want to say how sorry I am," he read. "I would be devastated if something would happen to my mom, my brother, my grandma, best friend."

Some thought the sentence was fair, but others — including Almli's husband of 38 years — did not.

"It's kind of a slap in the face as far as I'm concerned," Bill Almli said later in a phone interview. "It's like nothing. I just feel like Pam's life didn't mean anything. This is not right."

The Department of Youth and Family Services had recommended a three-month sentence in juvenile detention, the maximum in the sentencing range. But Cook said 90 days was "excessive punishment."

The teen's attorney, Roy Howson, said he was disappointed that his client will serve any time, saying he's "very fragile."

Almli's sister, Gail Blacker, said she thought the judge's ruling and sentence was fair.

"We loved Pam so much — we want the punishment to match our love for her," Blacker said. "But that's not the way it works."

With a son of her own, she said she felt compassion for his family, especially his mother.