Eric Smiley Given 33 Years In Terry's Death -- Officer's Killer Sentenced

After almost three years of pain for the family of slain Seattle Police Officer Antonio Terry - and three years of despair for the family and relatives of the man accused of killing him - Eric Smiley was sentenced yesterday to 33 years and four months in prison.

The prosecution had urged Judge Ann Schindler to impose an exceptional sentence of 60 years in prison, citing seven reasons why it was warranted. The defense asked for a sentence in the low end of the standard range, which is roughly 22 to 29 years.

Tommie Terry, Antonio Terry's mother, said she was not upset that the prosecution's request for a stiffer sentence was denied.

"Thirty-three years is a lifetime in prison. We'll move on from here," she said.

Smiley's mother, Joyce Clay, had clasped her hands and prayed while seated in the courtroom.

"I was praying for the judge to leave the door ajar so that it's not closed forever on my son," Clay said.

Antonio Terry was shot in the early morning of June 4, 1994, during a gunbattle on the Swift-Albro ramp off Interstate 5. He had stopped his car and approached four men who were near a disabled vehicle.

One of those men was Smiley. He was convicted April 8, his 28th birthday, of first-degree murder for the shooting after a previous trial ended in a hung jury.

Like the trials themselves, two of the longest in King County Superior Court history, the sentencing brought out the tumultuous passions of ordinary citizens whose lives had been consumed by events beyond their control.

The Terry family sat in the second row of the courtroom. Smiley's family waited in the third. Several times during the proceeding, one member of the Terry family would comfort another.

Terry's family asked Schindler to provide justice; Smiley's family asked for justice and mercy.

"There are no winners. . . . My family lost their loved one," Terry's mother told Schindler. "Mr. Smiley lost his freedom, and his family is going to lose him. (But) Mr. Smiley must be held responsible."

Several other members of the Terry family expressed the same sentiment.

Smiley, sitting between his attorneys, Lori Gustavson and Brady Johnson, listened quietly for several minutes as Monika Terry-McCoy, sister of the slain officer, paced in front of him, unleashing three years of anger and loss.

"You were the man out there, you were in control . . . you were the top dog," she said.

Once, as Terry-McCoy's anger intensified and she pointed toward the defendant, Gustavson asked Judge Schindler whether she was going to intervene. But Smiley, who over the course of two trials had remained quiet and calm, urged Gustavson to allow Terry-McCoy to continue.

"Let her go, let her go, let her go," said Smiley, who was visibly disturbed.

"Antonio had a family. Antonio had kids, a wife," Terry-McCoy said, her voice rising. "You took that away from them."

Smiley's mother, a few minutes later, with her eyes filled with tears and her voice with emotion, told Schindler: "Please, I beg you; please, carefully consider your judgment you are about to impose on Eric."

A second defendant in the case, Quentin Ervin, now 20, was found guilty during the first trial of second-degree murder. He was sentenced to 27 years in prison.

In both trials, the prosecution argued that Terry stopped to assist what he thought were stranded motorists. Smiley was the driver; Ervin and two other young men were with him.

Prosecutors said Ervin jumped out and struck Terry's car with his hand to get him to stop. After Terry did so and approached the stranded vehicle, prosecutors said, he heard one of the men yell, "He's a cop." Shortly after that, Terry was shot.

Attorneys for the defendants contended they did not know that Terry, dressed in plainclothes and driving an unmarked car, was an officer. They said that Terry, angry that Ervin had jumped in front of his car to get him to stop, got out holding a gun at his side.