By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – The Washington State Supreme Court issued an opinion yesterday disqualifying a local judge from presiding over a resentencing that has twice been ordered in a drive-by shooting committed by a former Centralia High School student at age 16.
Guadalupe Solis-Diaz Jr. is serving a nearly 93 year sentence imposed by Lewis County Superior Court Judge Nelson Hunt.
[1]Guadalupe Solis-Diaz Jr.
In 2012, the Washington State Court of Appeals ordered the local court to conduct a new hearing, referencing various matters that it believed should have been handled more thoroughly, given the defendant was a juvenile. In 2014, Judge Hunt held the hearing, criticizing the appeals court decision calling some of their conclusions insulting and ludicrous.
He sentenced Solis-Diaz for the second time to 1,111 months in prison.
The case grew out of an incident in the summer of 2007.
Solis-Diaz Jr. was arrested after gunfire was sprayed along the east side of South Tower Avenue in Centralia, missing six bar patrons. Witnesses testified it was gang-related. Solis-Diaz maintained he was innocent.
[2]Judge Nelson Hunt
He was tried as an adult and convicted of multiple offenses, including one count of first-degree assault committed with a firearm for each bullet that was fired.
The six assault counts were ordered to be served consecutively and each carried a mandatory extra five years because they were committed with a firearm.
Judge Hunt was asked to consider an exceptional sentence downward, but Hunt maintained several reasons why he should not do that.
This past spring, a different three-member panel of the appeals court stated the sentencing court must conduct a meaningful, individualized inquiry into whether Solis-Diaz’s youth should mitigate his sentence. That hearing has yet to be held.
However, they declined to disqualify the sentencing judge and Solis-Diaz went to the Supreme Court about that.
In its opinion issued yesterday the state Supreme Court stated the law requires more than an impartial judge, it requires the judge to also appear to be impartial.
Hunt would be asked to exercise discretion of the propriety of a sentence he has already imposed and, “the record reflects that he not only has strong opinions on sentencing generally and juvenile sentencing in particular, but also suggests he has already reached a firm conclusion about the propriety of a mitigated sentence in this case and may not be amenable to considering mitigating evidence with an open mind,” the court wrote.
Judge Hunt retired last Friday after 12 years on the bench.
The opinion was issued by the court as a whole without a named author.
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For background, read “Former Centralia high school student wins a second appeal of virtual life sentence” from Tuesday May 17, 2016, here [3]
Read the Washington State Supreme Court decision here [4]