SPOKANE, Wash – A man convicted of killing two young adults in Spokane in 2008 and also killing his cellmate in Virginia will get a second chance at freedom.
Justin Crenshaw will return to a Spokane courtroom for resentencing under a 2021 Washington State Supreme Court decision.
The ruling declared it unconstitutional to sentence anyone who committed crimes between ages 18 and 21 to life without parole, requiring courts to consider their youth.
Crenshaw was 20 years and two months old when he committed what prosecutors called a deliberate and especially cruel attack in 2008.
He stabbed Sarah Clark and Tanner Pehl to death, posed their bodies with swords, then set the house on fire. A judge sentenced him to life without parole.
Crenshaw’s violence didn’t end there. While imprisoned in Virginia, he strangled his cellmate. Court records show he also stabbed two other inmates at prisons in Washington and New Mexico.
“He has continued to be violent in a controlled environment,” said Teesha Clark, Sarah’s mother.
The Department of Corrections calls Crenshaw a “dangerously violent offender with a high risk for reoffending in a violent manner” in its pre-sentence report.
But, Spokane County has to follow the rules laid out in the Washington Supreme Court decision.
Referred to as the Monschke/Bartholomew decision, it requires resentencing for anyone already serving life without parole for crimes committed between 18 and 21.
The court opinion states that “mandatory life sentence creates an unacceptable risk that youthful defendants without fully developed brains will receive a cruel [life without the possibility of parole] sentence.”
Teesha Clark struggles with the logic behind the ruling.
“If you’re 18, you can legally do a whole lot of things. You can get married, go to war, drive a car, sign a contract. You can do all sorts of things, but when it comes to murdering someone, all of a sudden, we’re going to look at brain development. I don’t understand,” she said.
Steve Clark echoes his wife’s frustration.
“It just doesn’t make sense. Our young grandchild of 11 years old says, I know it’s not right to kill somebody,” he said. “We have been given a life sentence. There’s no way we can get paroled from what we think about in losing our daughter.”
The family faces the possibility of appearing before parole boards every decade if Crenshaw becomes eligible for release.
“My kids… The thought of them having to go before a parole board every 10 years for the rest of their lives and relive this again like they are now, our five other children, that breaks my heart,” Steve Clark said.
The impact extends to the next generation. Teesha Clark wrestles with how to explain Sarah’s death to her grandchildren.
“When the grandkids say — how did Auntie Sarah die? What do I say to that? What age do I tell them the truth?” she said.
As they prepare to face Crenshaw in court once again, the Clarks continue fighting not just against his potential release, but for Sarah’s memory.
“How do you wrap up a life? How do you portray that life? And try to portray the loss to us — and the loss to the world?” Steve Clark said.
Crenshaw’s sentencing begins at 9 am on Monday.
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