Repeat offender sentenced to life without parole for 2017 Tumwater rape
An Olympia man who was convicted of raping a woman in Tumwater in 2017, and who pleaded guilty to assaulting another woman in 2018, was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole Wednesday.
Logan H. Humphrey, 37, was subject to Washington’s “persistent offender law” due to a rape conviction from 2002. The law requires life sentences without parole for certain repeat sex offenders.
“This is why a persistent offender law was designed,” Thurston County Superior Court Judge John Skinder said at sentencing. “Because, as sad as it is, you are not safe to be out in (the) community, you are not safe to be out in the public. You are predatory.”
In the 2002 case, Humphrey was accused of breaking into a woman’s apartment, holding her at knife-point, and sexually assaulting her multiple times, according to a pre-sentence investigation by the state Department of Corrections.
Humphrey was convicted of first-degree rape and residential burglary in that case. He was sentenced to 17 years and released in April 2016.
Both recent crimes occurred while Humphrey was under Department of Corrections supervision, according to the investigation. And both originated with a woman reporting that a stranger sexually assaulted her while she was walking in Tumwater.
A prosecutor’s statement supporting probable cause gives the following accounts:
A woman reported July 27, 2017, that a man came up behind her while she was walking a path off Tyee Drive. She said he grabbed her, covered her eyes, held a knife to her neck, led her into the woods, and sexually assaulted her. A sexual assault kit was submitted into evidence.
About six months passed.
A different woman reported on January 22, 2018, that a man came up behind her while she was walking on Kimmie Street near 93rd Avenue. She reported he grabbed her arm and put his hand over her mouth, and that he punched her in the head when she tried to run. She said he then sexually assaulted her.
A description of the man, his car, and a water bottle the man made her drink from matched Humphrey’s.
Two days later, on January 24, a detective said results had come back from the Washington State Patrol lab: The DNA from the 2017 case matched Humphrey’s, which was on file after the 2002 conviction. Humphrey was arrested on Jan. 25, according to the DOC investigation.
The timing of the test results led King 5 to report in 2018 that this case provided “a glaring example” of how the state’s rape kit backlog “is still having serious and devastating consequences.”
Humphrey initially faced a total of seven felony charges in the combined 2017 and 2018 cases: Two counts of first-degree rape, two counts of second-degree assault, two counts of first-degree kidnapping, and one count of intimidating a witness, according to court documents.
The three charges from the 2017 incident were subject to jury trial in June.
A jury convicted Humphrey on second-degree rape and second-degree assault with a sexual motivation and found him not guilty of kidnapping, court documents show. Sentencing on those charges was delayed until Humphrey reached a plea agreement in the January 2018 incident.
He pleaded guilty to first-degree assault Sept. 26 in the 2018 incident, resolving the rest of the charges.
At sentencing Wednesday, the state requested life in prison without parole on each jury conviction and a high-end sentence of 18 years on the assault charge to which Humphrey pleaded guilty.
Deputy Prosecutor Brandi Archer argued that Humphrey was “the reason that society teaches women not to be alone” and that he’s “the reason the persistent offender statute exists.”
Tumwater Police Department Detective Tim Eikum, the lead detective on both recent cases, read a halting and emotional statement at sentencing. He asked Judge Skinder to give the two women closure.
“Your honor, give women a reason to be a little less afraid,” Detective Eikum said.
Public Defender Kevin Griffin acknowledged at sentencing that the court didn’t “have any choice” in the sentencing for the jury convictions, but added he thinks confining someone without opportunity for rehabilitation or release is “morally offensive.”
He requested a mid-range sentencing on the assault plea of just under 16 years.
Judge Skinder ultimately imposed two life sentences for the 2017 incident and 18 years for the 2018 incident, plus conditions that included lifetime sexual-assault protection orders and restitution of undetermined amounts for both victims.
Humphrey has the opportunity to appeal the jury’s verdict that led to the two life sentences.
Skinder asked for everyone present at sentencing to acknowledge the “strength and bravery” of the two women for reporting what had happened to them and going through “an incredibly difficult process.”
“I think anyone looking at you without knowing anything about you would just assume you’re a middle-aged, regular person,” Judge Skinder said to Humphrey at sentencing. “But you’re not. You are a rapist. You are someone who objectifies, assaults, terrorizes women.”
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