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POSTED: Wednesday, Dec. 03, 2008

Prison sentence reduced in Blaine girl's rape, murder

A U.S. Supreme Court ruling has led to a shorter sentence for the man who raped and murdered a Blaine girl in 2003.

A Thurston County judge shaved three years and five months off former Olympia resident Stephan D. Kaufman’s nearly 24-year prison sentence Monday because of a 2004 Supreme Court ruling that invalidated exceptional sentences under certain circumstances.

In April 2004, a Thurston County jury convicted Kaufman, 49, of second-degree murder and third-degree rape. Kaufman, a former part-time teacher for North Thurston High School in Lacey, was found guilty of killing Ashley Parks, 15, whose remains were found in August 2003 by two hikers in a wooded area off the Chehalis Western Trail.

Kaufman met Parks in an Internet chat room. He arranged to pick her up near her Blaine home in July 2003, and brought her to his Olympia apartment, where they had sex. Witnesses saw Kaufman and Parks walking near the Chehalis Western Trail around the time that she went missing, court papers state.

On Monday, Thurston County Superior Court Judge Richard Strophy reduced Kaufman’s confinement from 285 months to 244 months. The original sentence had required Kaufman to serve prison time for his rape and murder convictions consecutively at 285 months.

Strophy’s action came after the state Court of Appeals ruled that under the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2004 Blakely v. Washington decision, Kaufman must serve the time for the murder and rape convictions concurrently at 244 months.

Under the Blakely case, the Supreme Court held that juries, not judges, must establish the facts leading to an exceptional sentence — a prison term that exceeds normal sentencing guidelines.

Thurston County Chief Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Jon Tunheim said Monday that Strophy was bound by the court’s ruling and had to reduce Kaufman’s sentence. "He was reluctant to do it but really had no choice," Tunheim said.

Tunheim said that the reduction of Kaufman’s sentence is frustrating, because the U.S. Supreme Court announced the Blakely decision a week after Kaufman was sentenced, throwing Kaufman’s sentence into turmoil.