A former JBLM colonel has been discovered responsible by a Pierce County jury of assault and different expenses for beating his spouse and threatening to kill himself throughout a standoff with police in 2020.
Col. Owen Ray, 48, was discovered responsible of three of the seven expenses leveled towards him, together with second-degree assault whereas armed with a firearm, felony harassment and reckless endangerment. He was discovered not responsible of probably the most critical cost, first-degree kidnapping, in addition to two different counts of felony harassment. A second depend of second-degree assault was dismissed.
Ray was taken into custody on a no-bail maintain and was booked into Pierce County Jail. He had been out on $100,000 bail since January 2021. He’s to be sentenced Oct 28. The utmost attainable sentence he might obtain is 10 years in jail.
Ray was previously the chief of workers of I Corps at Joint Base Lewis-McChord. He was suspended shortly after the Dec. 27, 2020 standoff and was honorably discharged from the Army final yr. In response to courtroom data, the defendant is a veteran of greater than 25 years with fight expertise from eight deployments to the Center East and Asia. He additionally served as a army aide to President Barack Obama from 2011 to 2013.
The standoff occurred at Ray’s DuPont house. In response to charging paperwork and statements in Pierce County Superior Court docket, what would turn out to be an hours-long standoff the place Ray threatened to kill any police who tried to arrest him began with an argument along with his spouse, Kristin, after he had been consuming.
Kidnapping expenses alleged that Ray basically held his spouse hostage in entrance of their youngsters after she referred to as 911. In response to courtroom data, police arrived on the house shortly after midnight, and he allowed his spouse and youngsters to depart at about 12:30 a.m. The assault cost stemmed from allegations that Ray stomped on his spouse’s face and chest along with his boots through the incident.
On the finish of the two-week trial Thursday, the defendant’s attorneys argued that Ray’s actions have been the results of years of untreated post-traumatic stress dysfunction, and that the one individual he needed to harm that evening was himself. Prosecutors mentioned that whereas PTSD might have been an element, it was Ray’s personal anger that led to him terrorizing his spouse and youngsters.
“He isn’t up there to say goodbye to his youngsters,” deputy prosecutor Loren Halstrom informed jurors throughout rebuttal argument. “He isn’t up there to elucidate why he is going away, he is up there as a result of he needed management. He needed the ability, and he had that energy. He had the gun. He is aware of the ability, the hazard, the phobia of getting a gun.”
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