9-Month Sentence For Fatal Fistfight -- Edmonds Man Died After Lounge Fracas

EVERETT - One unlucky punch in a bar killed a man in August and yesterday sent another to prison for more than two years.

A Snohomish County Superior Court judge sentenced Robert Spady to the maximum 27 months for second-degree manslaughter in the death of Patrick G. Kalk.

Spady hit Kalk, 46, an Edmonds construction worker, in the neck after accusing him of breaking off a windshield wiper on his car a month earlier. Spady told police he hit or pushed Kalk because Kalk was moving toward him during the confrontation in the lounge of the Cascade Restaurant on Highway 99 south of Everett.

The blow smashed Kalk's carotid artery. He underwent surgery to remove pressure on his brain but was removed from a ventilator the next day.

"I have nightmares of trying to revive him and failing," said Kalk's sister, Jerrie Larsen, tears running down her face after the sentencing, at which she described her brother as "wonderful."

Kalk's mother, Agnes Tichi, told the sentencing judge, Richard Thorpe, "Mr. Spady has wreaked havoc on us in an unprovoked fit of rage."

Members of Spady's family, also distraught, also spoke to the judge.

"He's my brother, my friend and my partner," said George Spady, sobbing, shrugging and turning his hands palms up in a gesture of helplessness. "He's not a bad guy."

Spady, 30, an Everett tow-truck driver, pleaded guilty to the charge in September, admitting that his negligent act caused Kalk's

death. He had been free to spend the holidays with his children.

His lawyer told the judge Spady had been "absolutely stunned and horrified" to see Kalk killed. "He's someone who had too much to drink one night and . . . possibly overreacted," Susan Gaer said.

Gaer also said her client was known not to engage in barroom brawls, while his victim had been in a fistfight in a bar three weeks before he was killed.

Because Spady didn't intend to kill Kalk doesn't excuse him, said Deputy Prosecutor David Kurtz.

"There was clear criminal conduct, and it's appropriate he's held accountable," he said.

Nancy Montgomery's phone message number is 425-745-7803. Her e-mail address is: nmon-new@seatimes.com