Doomed Woman's Screams Precede Killer's Sentencing

The desperate screams of Gertrudes Lamson's last terrifying minutes cut through the courtroom yesterday like stilettos as she was heard pleading desperately - and fruitlessly - for mercy from her husband, Victor.

"Help me!" the doomed woman wailed on the tape recording, over and over. "Please! Don't! No! Help me! No! No! Help me, please."

But Victor Lamson, barely intelligible over his wife's mortal terror, only got angrier.

"Get up!" he barked. "Get up! Get up!"

Two muffled gunshots puffed through the courtroom tape recorder. Gertrudes Lamson, 50, was silent.

Then the courtroom erupted yesterday at the sentencing hearing for Victor Lamson, 54, who had pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in his wife's January slaying. Family members screamed obscenities and sobbed. His daughter, Christine Henthorn, 23, leaped over a bench in a fury, shouting and flailing as guards dragged her into the hallway.

"I hate you!" she screamed, the sound all too similar to her mother's final cries. "I hate you, you stupid (expletive)!"

When it was all over, King County Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Ramsdell calmly handed the expressionless Lamson a maximum 31 1/2-year prison term, never mentioning the tape recording that minutes before chilled the courtroom.

Instead, the judge said Lamson deserved no less than the full sentence because he had violated court orders and his wife's every diligent effort to flee her marriage.

"Society itself has been deprived of her presence," Ramsdell said.

Lamson pleaded guilty in June to avoid prosecutors increasing charges to aggravated murder, which would have meant life without parole or the death penalty.

Lamson admitted shooting his wife Jan. 23 in the driveway of his Issaquah-area home before shooting himself in a suicide attempt. Yesterday, he offered no comment and exhibited no emotion, even as the tape recording was played and his children attacked him.

Gertrudes Lamson, a mother of three and a nursing supervisor at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, had tried for years to escape her abusive husband.

"This was a deliberate act," Deputy Prosecutor Roger Davidheiser said. "Gertrudes Lamson had taken steps to protect herself. They were to no avail."

The recording of the murder was captured on the answering machine of a friend, prosecutors said. As Victor Lamson attacked his wife, he inadvertently bumped the "send" button on his cellular phone.

It dialed the friend and reached the recorder. On the tape, the court heard the friend greet the caller. Then a beep. Then nothing but screams, lasting minutes but seeming like an hour.

"It's horrible," Davidheiser said. "But it's also a very important piece of evidence. We felt the judge should have a full appreciation for the nature of the crime. And we really do feel like we've accomplished what is effectively a life sentence with a great deal of finality."

The family was warned about the recording, but only two people chose to leave the courtroom.

After the courtroom settled again, Lamson's children and in-laws continued to direct their angry words at him.

"He brought pain that I'll never forget," his son Eric Lamson, 18, said. "I've lost my mother because of his heartless and selfish actions. Throughout my life, Victor has hurt my mother and me in so many ways."

Brother-in-law Fred Warren wasn't as calm.

"You should be dead; you shouldn't go to prison," he said. "There isn't even any reason for you to exist."

And after it all, Lamson's lawyer, Bill Gales, could only sheepishly ask the judge to impose a 25-year sentence instead.

"The tragic loss of Gertrudes Lamson is certainly something that has affected a lot of people," he said. "He does feel remorse over what happened."

Ian Ith's phone message number is 206-464-2109. His e-mail address is iith@seattletimes.com