Word of God
Religion Comes Out at Sentencing of Micah Painter’s Convicted Gay Bashers
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There was barely a mention of God during the three-week trial of the men who gay bashed and stabbed Micah Painter last summer. The attackers, three young Evangelical Christians from Bellingham, declined to testify, which kept prosecutors from asking them what role religion might have played in the assault. The Evangelical lawyer for the main assailant, Vadim Samusenko, claimed he hadn't discussed a possible religious motivation with his client. Even the judge seemed reluctant to let God into the proceedings, leaving out "so help me God" when he swore in witnesses.
It was as if religion had been completely erased from the discussion of a hate crime that occurred, according to a young Evangelical woman who was with Samusenko that night, because being gay is "against our religion."
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But on Friday, May 13, when Samusenko, a 21-year-old immigrant from the former Soviet Union, faced sentencing for his crimes against Painter, there was no restraint in dropping God's name. Samusenko's lawyer, Thomas Olmstead, a born-again Pentecostal from Poulsbo, lectured King County Superior Court Judge Jeffrey M. Ramsdell about mercy and seemed to suggest that the judge might incur the "wrath of God" if he wasn't lenient. "As the good book says, 'Blessed are those who are merciful, for they shall receive mercy,'" said Olmstead, who believes a final judgment awaits everyone. "I don't envy you," he told the judge.
Samusenko himself told a story about having strayed from God's path and then returning to Christ during the 10 months he had so far spent in jail.
"God's been really showing me a lot of things while being here," he told Judge Ramsdell, standing solemn-faced with his hands clasped in front of him. "I had it all made... I was raised in church, attended choir and youth group. Life was going good... Everything was going blessed." But then, he told the judge, he began straying-an extended wandering that took him through drugs, alcohol, and law breaking that culminated in the attack on Painter. Thankfully, he told the judge, "through the work of Christ in me throughout this time I'm a totally changed person and I'm asking for mercy and another chance both from God and from this court."
If Judge Ramsdell was moved by the repeated invocations of God's name, it didn't show. He batted away Olmstead's argument that an exceptionally light sentence was warranted because Samusenko was remorseful ("The defendant's insight is too little too late"). He torpedoed Olmstead's claim that Samusenko was a victim of his own intoxication that night, noting Samusenko's two prior convictions for being a minor in possession ("The defendant had been forewarned that his involvement with alcohol tended to result in criminal difficulties"). And Judge Ramsdell seemed particularly dismissive of Olmstead's argument that Painter had brought the assault on himself. When Samusenko approached the victim holding a broken vodka bottle and demanded to know whether he was gay, Painter replied "yes." Samusenko then stabbed Painter in the face and back. "Did [Painter] initiate the contact?" Judge Ramsdell asked. He then answered, for Olmstead's benefit: "No."
Olmstead also suggested that the "extremely verbal" gay community might be attempting to harden the judge's heart, to which Judge Ramsdell responded: "I have received absolutely no communications from the purportedly 'extremely verbal' gay community." The only people he'd heard from, he said, were Samusenko's supporters.
Judge Ramsdell gave Samusenko nearly three years in jail, close to the maximum that prosecutors had asked for. He had already sentenced Samusenko's two accomplices, David Kravchenko, 20, and Yevgeniy Savchak, 18, last month. Each received one day less than a year in jail for their role. The two are not citizens, and the judge designed the sentence length so as not to trigger their automatic deportation back to the former Soviet Union, which their attorneys had argued was a "life sentence."
Painter didn't show up to the sentencing hearings, but he did send an e-mail to be read aloud to the attackers. "Every day for the rest of my life I will bear the scars you carved in me," Painter wrote. "None of us can change what has happened. We only have control over where we go from here."
One place the three attackers will not be going is back to their extremely conservative church in Bellingham-at least, not together. Judge Ramsdell prohibited the attackers from having contact with each other for five years, something their lawyers protested as harming their ability to practice their religion.
That didn't seem to bother Judge Ramsdell. "They'll have to find a different church to attend," he said. ■
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