Passionate plea

PALMER — In an emotionally charged hearing Monday, a Palmer judge sentenced Tommie Patterson to 100 years in prison for his role in the May 2005 shooting death of Terrell Houngues.

“I didn’t shoot nobody,” Patterson, 27, said before the sentence was handed down. His lawyer, Abigail Sheldon, said Patterson plans to appeal his conviction.

To Houngues’ family in the viewing gallery, Patterson said, “There’s no words that can ease their pain.”

Hougues, 23, of Anchorage was found shot to death on a Houston ATV trail. At trial, prosecutors argued Patterson was involved in a drug business with Mario Page, 23. Page’s girlfriend, Kira Gray, 19, allowed Houngues to steal 9 ounces of Page’s cocaine, prosecutors said. She lured him to Houston with promises of money and more drugs Page had buried near the Parks Highway. There, she shot him on Page’s orders, prosecutors said. Patterson, they argued, administered the coup de grace.

Pamela Williams, Houngues’ mother, disputed Monday that her son was involved in shady drug dealings. He didn’t head to Houston to steal from Page, she said. He wouldn’t have done that.

“Terrell was supposed to be there to videotape my baptism,” Williams said.

She spoke of how her son’s killing has left her depressed and unable to work for more than a year. She said she wanted the maximum possible sentence for Patterson.

“In the beginning I wanted to kill each and every one of them, and if I’d had a gun I’d’ve been just as rotten as these people. But I believe there is a God,” Williams said.

Patterson’s family was also at the sentencing. Two members testified they believed his claims of innocence, saying one of Patterson’s sisters had been killed and he wouldn’t have inflicted that pain on another family.

“I knew Terrell. I knew him well,” Patterson said. “He was an OK cat.”

Palmer District Attorney Roman Kalytiak argued for 99 years in prison on the first-degree murder charge and 20 for the kidnapping charge on which Patterson was convicted.

Sheldon, for her part, argued that Patterson’s role in the killing was even more minor than Fredrick Johnson, 24, a fourth conspirator who agreed to spend five years in prison on an evidence tampering charge in exchange for testifying against the other three.

Sheldon said by all rights Patterson should receive a five-year sentence as well but, to be consistent with the law, asked Superior Court Judge Eric Smith for the minimum allowed for first-degree murder, 20 years.

Gray took Houngues’ life, Sheldon said. When she was done firing rounds into Houngues’ head, there was no way Houngues would have lived. Patterson, on the other hand, fired at Houngues after he was lying still on the ground. Coroners testified that after Gray’s shots, Houngues had only a short while to live.

“That is what he took from him; he took seconds to minutes of pain,” Sheldon said.

Smith, in deciding to sentence Patterson to 85 years for murder and 15 for kidnapping, said that generally he doesn’t like to compare murders.

“I’ve seen a lot of different killings in this courtroom over the years, unfortunately. Each of them is different and all of them are awful,” he said, adding that “this was a pretty heinous murder.”

Noting that Houngues was forced into the trunk of a car to ride to where he would be executed, Smith said, “I can’t begin to picture the terror that poor man must have felt.”

Page was sentenced Aug. 10, 2007, to 90 years in prison with 25 suspended for second-degree murder and kidnapping. Gray was convicted in July 2007 of first-degree murder and kidnapping. She is scheduled to receive her sentence March 17.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.