Charles Ray Walters won’t be able to erase a past sin from his record, but his future is a bit more secure after a ruling by the state Court of Appeals for Division II.

In a unanimous decision issued Tuesday, a three-judge panel has ruled that the state cannot re-prosecute Walters for first-degree murder in the 1988 death of Michael Coon. Such a prosecution would violate Walters’ constitutional right against double jeopardy, the panel decided.

But the judges declined Walters’ request to vacate his original conviction for second-degree murder, meaning that mark will be on his record forever.

Both Walters’ attorney, Sheryl Gordon McCloud, and Pierce County deputy prosecutor John Neeb said the ruling met their goals.

“We are gratified that the appellate court recognized how well Mr. Walters has done since the crime occurred when he was a teenager,” McCloud said in an e-mail to The News Tribune. “We are pleased that the court recognized that the state cannot unilaterally reopen a settled and fully served conviction and sentence, and wreak havoc with someone’s life 20 years later. That is the protection that the Constitution gives to us all.”

In his own e-mail, Neeb said the ruling ensures that Walters remains a validly convicted murderer, which was his goal all along.

“The Pierce County Prosecutor’s Office was never interested in convicting Walters of a second crime, or a more serious crime, than second-degree murder,” the deputy prosecutor said. “The state only wanted to ensure that Michael Coon’s killer remained a convicted murderer.”

Walters, now 38, was 18 when he used his van to purposely run down Coon, 19, in the parking lot of Tacoma’s Allenmore Hospital in June 1988.

Originally charged with first-degree murder, he ultimately pleaded guilty to murder in the second degree predicated on assault and was sentenced to five years in prison.

He served his time, got out of prison and rebuilt his life, becoming a successful software engineer and husband.

RULE RETURNS HIM TO COURT

A legal conundrum created by the Washington Supreme Court six years ago in its so-called Andress decision brought him back to court.

That decision invalidated the crime of second-degree murder predicated on assault, meaning Walters and hundreds of others like him were convicted of a nonexistent crime.

The Legislature rewrote the felony murder law in 2003 to clarify that murder could be predicated on assault, and Pierce County prosecutors formulated a plan where they would offer defendants affected by Andress the same deal they got before the decision.

That is, the defendants would be required to plead guilty to second-degree murder. In exchange, prosecutors would recommend the same sentence the defendants got the first time they were convicted.

Walters wouldn’t take that deal, asking instead that his case be dismissed.

Neeb declined to do that and made a motion in court to reinstate the original first-degree murder charge and begin the legal process anew.

That meant Walters was facing as much as an additional 15 years in prison if convicted of first-degree murder, although Neeb always contended that Walters could plead guilty to second-degree murder and get his original sentence again.

CONVICTION VACATED

Last summer, the deputy prosecutor persuaded Superior Court Judge Stephanie Arend to his way of thinking, and she vacated Walters’ second-degree murder conviction and reinstated the first-degree murder charge.

Walters appealed, saying that action violated his protection against being prosecuted twice for the same crime. He also asked the appeals court to ensure that the original conviction remain vacated.

The appeals court agreed with his double-jeopardy argument, saying in its Tuesday decision that “the state fails to show a manifest necessity to recharge Walters.”

“Walters pled guilty, served his entire sentence, met all requirements, was discharged by the Superior Court and was granted reinstatement of his civil rights,” the judges wrote.

But the panel also decided that Walters’ original conviction will remain on his record as a valid conviction.

Walters can’t “use his guilty plea based conviction for second-degree felony murder to bar retrial” and maintain “that his previous conviction remains vacated by the trial court,” the panel ruled.

In other words, he can’t have it both ways.

Adam Lynn: 253-597-8644

blogs.thenewstribune.com/crime

Go to blogs.thenewstribune.com/crime to find links to the full appeals court decision and a previous story on the case of State v. Charles Ray Walters.