Murder Sentence Disappoints Family -- 31 Years Doesn't Seem Enough To Widow Of Slain Mountlake Terrace Man

EVERETT - When the Dare children go Christmas shopping in 2025, they could run into Stephen Cady.

To Crystal Dare, the children's mother, that possibility is unjust.

Cady, 22, killed their father, James Dare, last Christmas Eve. Yesterday, he was sentenced to 31 years, two months in prison. With time off for good behavior, Cady could be released in a little more than 29 years, at age 51.

"I don't think it's fair," a disappointed, tearful Dare said immediately after Cady's sentencing. "My kids aren't going to be that old, and (Cady) will be walking the streets again."

Dare hoped Cady would receive 50 years in prison, which was what Snohomish County Deputy Prosecutor Mark Roe had recommended to the court.

Dare said 50 years, which would effectively be a life sentence, was the only just punishment for someone who took a man away from his children.

Because of Cady's crime, Dare's children forever lost his companionship, and they are scarred by the violence, Dare told Judge Joseph Thibodeau of Snohomish County Superior Court.

Cady was charged with aggravated first-degree murder, which carries a mandatory life sentence, for his role in Dare's death. However, on Sept. 18, a jury could not agree on an aggravated-murder conviction. Instead, jurors convicted Cady of the lesser charge of first-degree murder.

Yesterday, Thibodeau said he sympathized with the Dare family but could not sentence Cady to 50 years. In considering a sentence, Thibodeau said he must look at the sentences of others who have committed similar crimes and at the potential sentences the other defendants involved in James Dare's murder might face.

Dare, of Mountlake Terrace, was killed last Dec. 24 after he was pushed from a moving car and shot in the back.

Cady was driving with two other men and a woman when they picked up Dare to buy drugs from him. Robert Vederoff, who was in the car, robbed Dare of the drugs at gunpoint. After the robbery, Dare was pushed from the car by Vederoff, 21, and Anthony Ouellette, 20.

As the dazed, helpless Dare staggered away, Cady turned the car around, went back to the scene and shot Dare in the back.

Vederoff's charge was reduced from first-degree to second-degree murder after he agreed to testify against Cady. He has a trial date of Feb. 9.

The third man, Ouellette, was also facing second-degree-murder charges. However, Roe said that those charges would be increased today to first-degree murder.

The woman, who was Cady's girlfriend, was not charged.