PORT ANGELES — A resentencing hearing on May 6 for Logan Justice Marquez — convicted of severely beating another man in December 2003 — could result in his freedom.
On Thursday, Clallam County Superior Court Judge George Wood agreed to hold the resentencing hearing for Marquez, 26, thanks in large measure to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last year.
In that case, Blakely v. Washington, the nation’s top court ruled that the state’s sentencing system violated a person’s right to trial by jury because it allowed judges to sometimes hand down sentences while considering aggravating factors that jurors never had the opportunity to see — as happened in Marquez’s case.
Even though Marquez was originally charged with first-degree assault for beating Brian Morseburg, 27, of Bothell into a coma with a large flashlight in the parking lot of an East Front Street convenience store on April 19, 2003, he was convicted by a jury of the lesser charge of second-degree assault with a deadly-weapon enhancement.
Morseburg suffered brain injuries.
Under state sentencing guidelines, the maximum jail time for Marquez’s conviction is two years and two months.
However, in handing down the sentence, Wood gave Marquez 4½ years.
Marquez is currently serving that sentence.
