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- Auburn murder victim's family forgives convicted killer at sentencing
The defendant's mother, however, maintained her son's innocence
By Lynsi Burton, SeattlePI Published 8:18 pm PDT, Monday, October 10, 2016
Wayne McCune's family said they forgave his killer Friday in a Kent courtroom.
That's where Jason Gamache, 46, was sentenced to just more than 23 years in prison after being convicted in August of slashing McCune's throat in an Auburn duplex in 2013.
Invoking her Christian faith, Wayne's wife, Ilene McCune, said during a statement at the sentencing hearing that, "I do forgive him."
"I would like for Jason to know that when he was born and he grew up, and even now, he is very loved," Ilene McCune said to the court. "His family loves him the same way."
Soon afterward, Gamache's mother, Linda Lenseigne of Yakima Valley, maintained her son's innocence.
"He's made some poor choices over the years and he's struggled to deal with emotional and physical pain," she said. "He is no murderer."
Gamache, also from the Yakima area, had stayed for a time in Auburn before and was living with the McCunes' friends and neighbors across the street at the time of Wayne McCune's death. Gamache was known to be addicted to prescription pain medications.
"The defendant's addiction is so great that he will do anything to satisfy it, including the commission of a brutal homicide," senior deputy prosecutor Wyman Yip wrote at the time of Gamache's murder charge in September 2013.
Ilene McCune arrived home from work the evening of Aug. 2, 2013, to find her husband dead on the living room floor, buried beneath a dog bed and filing cabinet, reports say. Beneath the bed and cabinet, McCune's head was covered in a plastic bag and his throat was slit from ear to ear.
Ilene McCune told police that her husband suffered serious medical conditions that required him to take a large amount of prescription pain killers. He also had frequently expressed suicidal ideations, going so far as to research methods of killing himself.
But investigators didn't find any signs of suicide. Rather, they found blood spatter on the wall and possible defensive wounds to McCune's body. There was no blood on the filing cabinet or the plastic bag, nor was there a weapon that could have inflicted his throat injury anywhere near his body, reports indicate.
The only thing missing was about 176 prescription pain pills.
Ilene McCune told cops that more than a year earlier, a man living across the street named Jason Gamache was caught by Wayne in their living room taking his pain medication. Gamache since moved away, but then recently returned, living with the McCunes' friends across the street, Bill and Jo Brazeal.
Auburn police reports say that McCune once told Bill Brazeal that if he saw Gamache anywhere near him or his home, he would assault him.
The autopsy revealed the following injuries to McCune: Cuts to the inside fingers of his left hand, a large cut to his lower lip, bruising to the top of his right eye, and stab wounds up to one inch deep to his left collar bone area, his chest, his right forearm, the base of his neck, his back, and the top of his head. The King County Medical Examiner's Office ruled the death a homicide.
The next day, Bill Brazeal called 911 to report that Gamache was missing, along with a .22 caliber rifle.
The day of McCune's death, Gamache caught up with Jo Brazeal at the Muckleshoot casino about 9 a.m. Jo Brazeal reportedly gave Gamache money to gamble, but he said he was leaving to pick up a pain killer prescription, police reports say. Gamache did not return until about 10:36 a.m., according to surveillance footage. He had changed his sweatshirt and gave Jo Brazeal about 10 or 15 pills matching one of the medications stolen from McCune's house.
Six days later, police found Gamache in the parking lot of the Snoqualmie Casino in his GMC Yukon, reports say. Officers arrested him for forearm theft.
While talking to detectives at the regional jail in Kent, he claimed that he had no recent contact with the McCunes and that he was at the Muckleshoot Casino on Aug. 2 from about 10 a.m. to after 5 p.m., court documents say. He claimed that he then headed over to the Snoqualmie Casino and gambled before being robbed while leaving the building.
Detectives confronted him with evidence showing that he left the Muckleshoot Casino and returned to it that day and also pointed out his change of shirt. Gamache then reportedly said he went to Goodwill that day. Traffic cameras do not bear this out and detectives could not find evidence that he entered the Snoqualmie Casino or was robbed, according to court documents.
Officers searched Gamache's Yukon to find a pill matching another brand taken from McCune's house, as well as a suspected handwritten suicide note:
"Please,
Whoever finds me contact by mother ... If somehow I am still alive I want no extraordinary efforts made to save me. I can't take the pain anymore. I should have passed in 2009, I am long overdue for the grave."
It was signed by "Jason."
The State Patrol's crime lab recovered blood spatter from Gamache's right shoe and found the DNA profile matched that of McCune.
Linda Lenseigne, Gamache's mother, claimed that prosecutors introduced tainted evidence in the trial and that there are other suspects who may have killed McCune.
"Wayne's murdere is still out there," she said Friday. "Jason could not have committed this crime."
Gamache's sister, Laurie Hart, painted a sympathetic portrait of her older brother.
"He taught me how to ride a bike, make cookies, how to care for a fish tank," she said.
She detailed his talent as an artist, poet, drummer and guitarist, as well as a lover of animals.
"He is not a violent person," Hart said through tears. "... Jason does not belong in jail. He has so much to offer this community and he wants to be part of it."
Ilene McCune read a letter from her husband's mother figure, who wrote: "Wayne's heart was bigger than the world. And whatever he had, he shared with those in need."
She also read comments from Jo Brazeal, who called McCune her fishing partner, buddy and confidante.
Ilene McCune also gave her own tearful testimony.
"Wayne was my partner in ministry ... he was my best friend ... but I know where he is," she said. "I haven't lost him. Wayne is more alive now than he ever was on Earth.
Wayne McCune's stepdaughter, Katrina Taylor, and granddaughter, Shae Loch, also paid tribute.
"He comforted me, he was there for me ? now that he's gone, there's a part of me that doesn't understand where to find that father figure again," Loch said. "What would I say to him if I had a chance to say goodbye before he was taken?"
With no criminal history, Gamache faced between 240 and 320 months in prison. King County Superior Court Judge Brian Gain pegged his sentence in the middle, at 280 months.
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