A Lewis County Superior Court judge will resentence a former Centralia man currently serving a 50-year prison sentence for murdering a 25-year-old in 2007 after the defendant filed a petition citing the State v. Blake supreme court decision.
The defendant, Gordon Hammock, argued that his case requires resentencing because the judge considered a now-vacated drug possession conviction when he set Hammock’s original sentence in 2008.
Hammock had been previously convicted for possession of a controlled substance but the charge was retroactively dismissed by the State v. Blake supreme court decision in February. The court struck down the state’s drug possession law because the law punished offenders regardless of whether they knew they had drugs in their possession.
Because judges in the state of Washington use a sentencing grid system that gives offenders a score based on the seriousness of prior convictions on the offender’s record, with a higher score carrying a more severe sentence, Hammock argued that he would have received a reduced sentence at his original sentencing hearing in 2008 had the now-vacated drug possession charge not been on his record.
Hammock filed his petition on June 1 and has a resentencing hearing scheduled for Sept. 1.
Hammock was convicted of first-degree murder in the death of William Ford at a Centralia residence in 2007. His trial, which lasted three weeks, concluded in February 2008 and he was sentenced a month later.
On Jan. 24, 2007, Ford was shot in the head with a homemade gun, beaten with a ball-peen hammer and strangled inside the Russell Road home where Hammock lived with his mother.
Ford, 25 at the time, was missing until about eight days later when a tip led police to his body behind a Winlock-area home.
Hammock and his girlfriend, Melissa McKee, were charged with second-degree murder. McKee testified against Hammock and received a reduced sentence. McKee allegedly shot Ford with the improvised gun on the command of Hammock, who allegedly then beat Ford with a ball-peen hammer, strangled him with an extension cord and stuffed his body into a trash bag he later dumped near Winlock.
During the trial, prosecutors alleged that McKee, Ford and another man — who later reported the murder to police — shared ecstasy, methamphetamine and sex in the hours leading up to the death.
