Government wants felon set free
A convicted felon who escaped from federal prison in Texas last year could soon go free if the government has its way. Shawn Lundy was a...
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A convicted felon who escaped from federal prison in Texas last year could soon go free if the government has its way.
Shawn Lundy was a star witness in a recently completed racketeering trial of four current and former members of the Hells Angels in Washington state. Prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Seattle say Lundy’s testimony helped secure a murder conviction against one of the defendants,Rodney Rollness.
In response, the government today plans to ask Judge Thomas Zilly to give Lundy, 53, credit for time served and no additional prison time for his escape from the La Tuna Federal Correction Institute in Anthony, Texas, on Feb. 27, 2006.
“Mr. Lundy’s importance in the Hells Angels prosecution cannot be overstated, and he should be rewarded for his assistance,” prosecutors wrote in a pre-sentencing memorandum filed with Zilly last week.
At the time of his prison escape, Lundy had served 7-<133>½ years of a 10-year sentence he had received from U.S. District Court Judge Marsha Pechman in 2000 for manufacturing marijuana and money laundering in Snohomish County.
The government, in a separate motion, is asking Pechman to reduce Lundy’s sentence on those convictions to 7 ½ years because of his cooperation in the Hells Angels case. If Pechman grants the motion, Lundy could soon be a free man.
Lundy was arrested by federal marshals in Arlington on March 6, 2006.
According to his attorney, Gabriel Banfi, Lundy fled the Texas facility because he had heard from a family friend that his daughter, who was living in Arlington, “may have been sexually abused by his children’s mother’s then-boyfriend.”
Lundy was subsequently held in the Federal Detention Center in SeaTac, where he struck up a friendship with Rollness. Rollness had been in custody since February 2006 awaiting trial in the racketeering case.
Rollness made several damaging admissions to Lundy, which Lundy later testified about at trial.
Todd Maybrown, an attorney for Rollness, tried unsuccessfully to exclude Lundy from the trial. Maybrown called Lundy a “lifelong criminal and an experienced informant” who had spent two years helping the government after he was arrested on multiple drug charges in Connecticut in 1990.
Judge Robert Lasnik allowed Lundy’s testimony. During closing arguments, Maybrown and other defense attorneys attacked the credibility of Lundy and other government witnesses, calling them “a rogue’s gallery of liars, felons and thieves.”
A jury found Rollness guilty of 12 crimes, including the 2001 murder at a party in Snohomish County of Michael “Santa” Walsh. Jurors deadlocked on three other counts against Rollness and found him not guilty of witness tampering.
David Bowermaster: 206-464-2724 or dbowermaster@seattletimes.com