Renton Man Gets 15 Years

SEATTLE - A Renton man with a history of violent crime has been sentenced to 15 years in federal prison for storming an ex-girlfriend's home last year with a pistol and holding police at bay for several hours.

U.S. District Judge William Dwyer sentenced 24-year-old Ryan A. Yocum this week after the court convicted him of being a career criminal in possession of a firearm.

A federal law calls for prison for anyone caught with a firearm who has had three or more violent felony convictions or serious drug convictions. The same law says Yocum will receive no credit for good behavior and has no hope of parole.

Last July, Yocum shot out a glass door to the 22-year-old ex-girlfriend's home in the Cascade Park-Fairwood neighborhood of Renton and stomped through the house threatening to kill the woman. She escaped out a basement door with her 6-year-old daughter and called police.

A King County sheriff's SWAT team fired tear gas into the house, then dragged Yokum from his attic hiding place.

Court records show Yocum has a long juvenile and adult record, including assault with a deadly weapon, burglary, theft, communicating with a minor for immoral purposes and other assault convictions.

But only one of his convictions - for assault with a weapon - qualifies as a strike under the state's "three strikes" law for persistent offenders.