Man gets 8 years in fatal beating

EVERETT — The tears Tony Cullum didn't shed last week when he testified about striking the blows that killed Bothell firefighter Gary McAdam outside a Snohomish tavern came out at his sentencing hearing yesterday.

"I'm sincerely, truly heartbroken and saddened by your loss," he told McAdam's family in Snohomish County Superior Court. "I just ask you to find forgiveness, and I hope you find (comfort) knowing Gary's in a better place."

Judge Gerald Knight gave Cullum, 29, a gentle but stern scolding in response. He said that from what he'd read of McAdam — a 40-year-old husband, father of three and new grandfather, well-liked and respected in his Snohomish community — it seemed McAdam liked the place he was in a lot.

"The only person who could tell if he's in a better place is Gary McAdam," Knight told Cullum. "Don't speak for him."

A few minutes later, the judge sentenced Cullum to eight years in prison — near the high end of the standard range for the first-degree manslaughter charge of which a jury convicted him Oct. 1.

McAdam's widow, Michelle McAdam, said she thought Knight "saw right through Cullum," adding that she was not convinced by Cullum's words of contrition.

"Not at all," she said. "You just can't change that fast."

During his trial, Cullum, a fisherman, testified that he punched McAdam after following him out of the U&I Tavern in Snohomish on Feb. 26 to protect the honor of his fiancée, Ali Love. Witnesses said McAdam called Love an obscene name while they were inside the tavern.

Cullum cried when he described how he believed McAdam had treated Love. But when asked about punching him, Cullum testified that the situation could have been avoided if McAdam had shown Love "the respect she deserved."

McAdam never hit Cullum, and Cullum threw at least three punches at McAdam, the last one knocking him unconscious, according to prosecutors. He died the next day at Seattle's Harborview Medical Center. The state Liquor Control Board revoked the U&I's liquor license after the incident, a decision the tavern owner is appealing.

Yesterday, Michelle McAdam told Cullum before his sentence was handed down how he had robbed her of "the one person that made my life complete."

"He was the love of my life and my best friend," she said before a packed courtroom. "... The pain in my heart some days is almost unbearable because I miss my husband so much."

Deputy Prosecutor Mark Roe played a videotape made in honor of McAdam, showing black-and-white photos of a grinning Gary McAdam as a boy with his sister, Debbie Murdock, who also spoke yesterday; with his wife and children through the years, with his co-workers and friends, scuba-diving, playing ball, standing in front of a mountain, looking tan, relaxed and happy.

Ali Love also apologized to his family, and told them that she and Cullum "found the Lord in all this" and pray together every night.

Cullum's Seattle attorney, Tony Savage, told the judge that it is not true that McAdam was "totally without fault and Cullum totally without virtue," referring to testimony that McAdam invited Cullum to fight.

"Somehow or other we seem to have lost track of that," Savage said.

Knight said he did not believe, as some witnesses said, that McAdam told Cullum to "Bring it on," outside the U&I. But even if he did, the judge said, that did not excuse Cullum, and he hadn't heard remorse in Cullum's testimony.

"The Tony Cullum I saw in the trial," he said, "does not square with the Tony Cullum ... I'm seeing today."