ALGER, Wash. -- The man charged with killing six people, including a sheriff's deputy, in an Alger area shooting rampage last year has pleaded guilty and will not get the death penalty.
Isaac Zamora entered pleas to 18 charges including murder, attempted murder and burglary Tuesday after Prosecutor Rich Weyrich announced he would not seek the death penalty.
Bellingham lawyer Dean Brett represents the families of some of Zamora’s victims.
“It’s obvious that he was crazy, and it was obvious that he was crazy to anybody who looked at him,” Brett said.
“The problem is that the Department of Corrections never took a look at him. They had him for 3½ months and never even completed an intake. They lost him within the system. It’s simply a tragedy that should not have happened here.”
Zamora pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to two counts - for the deaths of deputy Anne Jackson and Alger resident Chester Rose.
Lawyers on both sides are asking that Zamora be committed to Western State Hospital until he is deemed mentally fit to be transferred to state prison to serve a life sentence.
Judge Mike Rickert is scheduled to issue the sentence on November 30th.
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