News-Times Whidbey
Are you ready for some football? A14
SATURDAY, AUGUST 24, 2013 | Vol. 114, No. 68 | www.whidbeynewstimes.com | 75¢
Double murderer gets 100 years “He’s exceptionally dangerous. He is deserving of a sentence that ensures he is never released from prison, never permitted again to be in free society.’’ Island County Prosecutor Greg Banks
Family members testify at sentencing By JESSIE STENSLAND Staff reporter
Joshua Lambert is a “walking time bomb” and a meth-abusing, antisocial narcissist who should never be free again. That was the summation offered by Judge Vickie Churchill before she handed the double murderer a sentence that ensure he dies in prison. Nobody — not even Lambert nor his attorney — asked for any mercy or sympathy during the hearing Tuesday in Island County Superior Court. And Lambert got none.
Photos by Jessie Stensland/Whidbey News-Times
Oak Harbor resident Joshua Lambert wears a spit mask while speaking at his sentencing hearing Tuesday. He was sent to prison for 100 years for murder and kidnapping.
CHURCHILL FOLLOWED Prosecutor Greg Banks’ recommendation and gave 32-year-old Lambert an exceptional sentence of 100 years, a number that Banks said was symbolic of the “horrific” nature of the crimes. “I have noticed, Mr. Lambert, during the jury trial, you were unable to look at the photographs of your grandfathers and face the horror of what you did to them,” Churchill said. “For
the rest or your life, may their faces as they are shown in those photographs stare at you out of the dark.” “Remember what you did to them.” A JURY convicted Lambert last month of stabbing and slashing to death his two 80-yearold grandfathers, George Lambert and August Eugene “Sonny” Eisner, as well as kidnapping his great aunt on North Whidbey on Oct. 3, 2011. Lambert claimed he was legally insane. He acted as his own attorney until numerous outbursts culminating in a courtroom fight with guards prompted the judge to order the standby attorney to take over halfway through the trial. Banks presented evidence at trial, including testimony from two mental-health experts, that Lambert has a antisocial personality disorder and went on the killing spree fueled by methamphetamine. THE JURY believed the prosecution’s version of events and found Lambert guilty of all eight counts against him, including two counts of first-degree murder. Lambert spoke briefly on his own behalf Tuesday. He was shackled and wearing a blue face mask to prevent him from spitting on See LAMBERT SENTENCED, A10
Commissioners pull law & justice measure from ballot By JESSIE STENSLAND Staff reporter
One commissioner’s recognition of the county’s recuperating finances has led the board to pull the law-and-justice levy from the November ballot. The Island County commissioners are scheduled Monday to formally remove the proposed property tax increase from the ballot. All three commissioners informally agreed on the decision during a work session Wednesday. “I’m concerned about going out and asking
the taxpayers for more money when we have capacity in our budget,” Commissioner Jill Johnson said. It’s a turnaround from their decision in July, when the commissioners voted to put the $1.9-million-a-year, property-tax levy on the ballot following a series of community meetings about the issue. Island County Sheriff Mark Brown and Prosecutor Greg Banks, the primary proponents of the levy, attended the commissioners’ work session Wednesday and asked the commissioners to withdraw the levy. They said they reached the decision after a special,
unadvertised meeting of the Law and Justice Council Monday; all nine members present agreed to ask the board to delay the ballot measure after speaking with Johnson about the budget. The issue may not be gone for good. Brown and Banks said the needs are great and a levy still may be necessary in the future, but they’ll have a better picture of the numbers after this year’s budget process, which started this week. “The need will still outstrip the county’s resources, but not in the first year,” Banks said.
Brown agreed that the levy would be “more palatable to voters” if the county spends its existing surplus to fund law-and-justice needs before asking for more in taxes. Johnson conceded Wednesday that she didn’t have a complete grasp of the county’s budget when she agreed to the law-and-justice ballot measure. She said she was focusing on the expenditure side of the equation and found that it was “very, very lean.” The only programs left that can be cut, she said, are valuable and the savings wouldn’t See MEASURE PULLED, A10