A federal judge said he will impose a reduced sentence for former U.S. Army Ranger Luke Sommer, who is serving 44 years in prison for leading a terrifying takeover robbery at a Tacoma bank in 2006 and then ordering a hit on the prosecutor who sent him away.
U.S. District Judge James Robart, in ordering a new sentencing hearing on Nov. 2 for Sommers, said the prisoner had presented "extraordinary and compelling" evidence arguing that his sentence was excessive.
In a self-drafted motion filed in June, Sommer told the court he was a changed man after nearly 15 years in a maximum-security federal prison. He asked Robart to reduce his sentence to no more than 20 years, which would get him out of prison as early as 2028.
Sommer presented hundreds of letters and testimonials about the success of his rehabilitation, including some written by Bureau of Prison officials and prison guards.
Sommer also argued the years he spent incarcerated in Florida during the COVID-19 pandemic had made his sentence particularly grueling and that the punishment was more severe than the court anticipated when he was sentenced in 2008. He said his prison sentence was longer when compared to others convicted of similar offenses and left him ineligible for many vocational, drug-rehab and educational opportunities.
Finally, Sommer argued that potentially mitigating brain-science research relevant to his traumatic childhood and his youth at the time he committed his crimes was not available when he was sent to prison.
Robart, in a 19-page order issued Wednesday, said taken by themselves none of Sommer's arguments would justify a new sentence. Every person in federal prison has suffered under COVID-19 restrictions, and many people who commit crimes have traumatic pasts, the judge said.
"The court nevertheless finds that Mr. Sommer's arguments regarding (1) his lengthy sentence, age and mental health and history of trauma and (2) his post-sentence rehabilitation, considered together, establish ... reasons justifying a reduction in sentence," the judge wrote.
"The effects of youth and childhood trauma on cognitive development have become better understood since Judge [Franklin D.] Burgess and the undersigned originally sentenced Mr. Sommer, and Mr. Sommer's substantial accomplishments during his incarceration show that he has risen above his traumatic past."
The U.S. Attorney's Office in Seattle did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Robart's decision. Prosecutors have said they will oppose any reduction in Sommer's sentence.
"His criminal conduct was serious, violent, and persisted over the course of years," wrote Assistant U.S. Attorney Teal Luthy Miller in a response opposing Sommer's early release. "He led a team of armed bank robbers and possessed illegal destructive devices. Then, after he fled to Canada and was eventually extradited, he assaulted a co-defendant in prison."
Sommer was 20 years old and a veteran of combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan when he recruited two other Rangers, Chad Palmer and Alex Blum, and Canadian nationals Tigra Robertson and Nathan Dunmall to participate in the Aug. 7, 2006, robbery of a Bank of America branch on South Tacoma Way. The robbers, some armed with AK-47s and wearing body armor, made off with $54,011.
Prosecutors said Sommer planned to use the money to establish a crime family in Canada. Sommer claimed the robbery was a political protest to draw attention to war crimes he witnessed in Iraq and Afghanistan — a claim the Army later discounted.
A bystander spotted the license plate of the getaway car. The car was traced to Fort Lewis, where evidence of the robbery was uncovered at the men's barracks.
Sommer was arrested at his parents' Peachland, B.C., home but disappeared after being placed on house arrest. He later was arrested in Richmond, B.C.
Blum and Palmer, who served alongside Sommer in C Company, 2nd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, pleaded guilty to taking part in the robbery, as did Robertson, of Kelowna, B.C., and Dunmall, of Chilliwack, B.C.
After Sommer's arrest, he assaulted one of his co-defendants with a homemade knife in prison, and then tried to hire a "hit man" to kill the assistant U.S. attorney who prosecuted him. The hit man turned out to be an undercover FBI agent.
He was sentenced to 24 years in prison for the robberies and an additional 20 years for the assault and attempting to solicit a hired killer.
In his motion, Sommer said his life of crime is behind him.
After years of heroin addiction — including persistent drug use while in prison — Sommer said he's sober and a respected mentor to other incarcerated people.
