Convicted Skagit Valley killer gets life under 3-strike rule
Friday, March 9, 2007 6:28 AM PST
By Associated Press
Printable version
E-mail this articleMOUNT VERNON, Wash. (AP) -- A man convicted of beating and stabbing an acquaintance to death in 2005 has been sentenced to life in prison without chance of release under the state's three strikes law.
Skagit County Superior Court Judge John Meyer sentenced Terrance Irby on Tuesday. Irby was convicted on Jan. 25 of aggravated first-degree murder in the death of James Rock of Hamilton.
Aggravated first-degree murder is punishable either by the death penalty or life in prison without possibility of release. However, county Prosecutor Rich Weyrich said Meyer chose to handle the sentencing under the three strikes law.
Evidence presented at his trial indicated Irby, 48, beat Rock over the head with a blunt object, stabbed him and sliced his throat in Rock's garage on March 8, 2005. No murder weapons were found.
Irby was convicted of second-degree statutory rape in 1976 and of assault with a deadly weapon in 1984.
Irby has maintained his innocence and told the court he will appeal his conviction.
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