Mom Of Boy Who Brought Gun That Injured Young Girl Sentenced

[Jazzy]

The mother of a Washington state boy who brought a gun to school that went off in his backpack and critically wounded a classmate will spend more than a year behind bars.

Jamie Lee Chaffin was sentenced to 14 months Friday in Kitsap County Superior Court. She initially faced third-degree assault charges but was eventually prosecuted for unlawful possession of a firearm. She was convicted of forgery in 2007 and barred from owning or accessing weapons.

In February 2012, the gun that Chaffin's 9-year-old son brought to the city of Bremerton elementary school fired inside his backpack, injuring 8-year-old Amina Kocer Bowman. She had multiple surgeries and spent more than a month in the hospital.

The boy told investigators he took the gun from a dresser at the home of his mother's boyfriend, Douglas Bauer, because he was afraid of other students. Chaffin did not have custody of her son, who lived with his uncle.

The boy and his siblings testified that there were other firearms in Bauer's home that were not locked away.

Chaffin agreed in 2012 to testify against Bauer in exchange for the assault charge being dropped. She also agreed to plead guilty to unlawful possession of a gun, but her sentencing was postponed while Bauer's case wound through the courts. Her punishment moved forward after the state Supreme Court ruled in July that the third-degree assault case against Bauer could not proceed.

Bauer watched Chaffin's sentencing Friday. Her attorney, Michael Clark, sought less than the 14 months recommended by prosecutors, saying she could not care for herself and was dependent on Bauer, leaving her with few options despite knowing guns were in the house. But Judge Leila Mills imposed the full year and two months.

Source

She was charged with possession a weapon that was not hers, in an apartment that was not hers and was in the hands of a child she didn't have custody of. I don't see why she was charged with weapon possession.

Your thoughts?

 

[Dee]

She was charged because she was not being a responsible gun possessor. It may not have been hers, but this could have been prevented had she put the gun in a lock box or stored it away from her child and not given him the code or the key for the lock (or made it easy for him to figure that out). PLENTY of these instances where kids show up to school with guns, whether it's with intent to kill or just to show off, could have been prevented by either having them locked up or stored in a place inaccessible to children. I can think of at least 4-5 off the top of my head where a child hurt or killed someone because of irresponsible adults leaving their weapons around, loaded, where they were readily accessible to children.

I think this is a very appropriate punishment for the woman, especially with the extra laws she was breaking.

 

[DrLeftover]

The only thing that really surprises me is that they filed those charges, and got a conviction, against a woman.