60-year sentence for rest-stop slaying

DEER LODGE, Mont. - A former high-school homecoming king - a diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic - was sentenced yesterday to 60 years in the state hospital at Warm Springs for killing a Washington state man at a rest stop last year.

Douglas Zander, 27, of Mandan, N.D., entered a no-contest plea in April to shooting David Solomon, 47, of Spokane at an Interstate 90 rest stop 65 miles east of Missoula.

"The court has given you a 60-year term because I believe it's the rest of your life, Mr. Zander, and I believe there has to be supervision over you for the rest of your life," District Judge Ted Mizner said after hearing four hours of testimony.

"Tragedy doesn't seem to be the appropriate word for what's happened here. There isn't anything to be done that will put the pieces back together. It's forever changed."

Testimony indicated Zander's victim was randomly chosen, the killing was not racially motivated and it was an accident Zander ended up at the Gold Creek rest area. Solomon was black, while Zander and Solomon's wife are white.

Zander had been driving frantically from Seattle to his home in Mandan that night, testimony indicated. He had been awake for 30 hours when he took a wrong turn out of Helena and ended up heading west toward Missoula, said Dale Watson, a clinical psychologist who examined Zander.

Solomon's wife and 4-year-old son witnessed the shooting.