Jailhouse lawyer who skirted life in prison is sentenced on new charges
Gerald Lawrence Cole Jr. left Pierce County Superior Court Judge Frank Cuthberston’s courtroom in 2017 as a successful jailhouse lawyer.
Facing life in prison under the state’s three-strikes law, he decided to represent himself and left sentenced to about 18 months behind bars.
The 35-year-old was back in front of Cuthberston on Friday and left with longer sentence: 14 and a half years.
“You’re back here with three new things,” the judge said. “I don’t know what to do with that.”
Cole was sentenced for the three new cases Friday and resentenced for the 2017 case following an appellate decision.
Prosecutors said Cole crashed his car Jan. 12, 2016 in Tacoma, tried to flee, struggled with police and pulled a gun, according to court records.
Jurors acquitted Cole of second-degree assault, two counts of third-degree assault and attempting to disarm an officer. They convicted him of unlawful gun possession and a suspended license. Cole asked the judge to overturn the gun possession verdict at the 2017 sentencing. Cuthbertson did, but earlier this year the state Court of Appeals overturned his decision.
One of Cole’s new cases involved him pleading guilty to first-degree theft, violating a no-contact order and violating a court order.
In another case, he pleaded guilty to drug possession, and in the third he pleaded guilty to unlawful gun possession.
Defense attorney John Meske told the court Friday that Cole “didn’t have the best upbringing.”
He was exposed to drugs and alcohol at a young age and to a “tremendous amount of violence,” the attorney said.
He said Cole wants treatment and to get a job that allows him to provide for his own children.
Deputy prosecutor Nathan Zink noted Cole’s prior convictions and told the court Cole “is an individual who has lived a life of crime.”
Cole apologized and told the court: “It’s not nobody else’s fault but mine.”
Cuthbertson told Cole that the last time Cole left his courtroom, in 2017, he had a chance to get treatment and to be a father to his children.
The judge also told him at that time, “I don’t want this to go to your head, but the pleadings were pretty well researched. Pretty well written.”
The judge noted Friday that that case, including some of the positive things the judge had said, had been reported by The News Tribune.
“That’s what I really felt,” he told Cole.
It didn’t go as well Friday. Cuthbertson sentenced Cole to 87 months in prison for the three new cases.
Deputy prosecutor Kawyne Lund asked the court to run that consecutive to the 87 months the judge gave him Friday when resentencing him for the prior case.
Cuthbertson agreed.
“I understand your anger,” Cole told the judge before he was resentenced.
“I’m not angry,” Cuthbertson replied.
He was disappointed, he said, and sad for him.
