September 22, 2000

Man sentenced for shots at melee

By SCOTT NORTH

Herald Writer

The young man who fired the first shots at a May 30 fistfight in Everett that turned into a fatal gunbattle was sentenced to more than a year in prison Thursday.

Jesse Louis Sorensen, 18, had earlier pleaded guilty to a single count of being a felon in possession of a firearm. The Sequim man had been barred from firearms because of a juvenile felony conviction for burglary.

Sorensen admitted he was among a group of young people who gathered outside the home of Dennis Cramm, 17, to watch a fistfight between Cramm and another teen. When additional fighting broke out between others in the crowd, Sorensen grabbed a pistol from one of Cramm's housemates and then fired the weapon into the air.

Sorensen didn't shoot at anyone. Dennis Cramm allegedly did. When the smoke cleared, Jason Thompson and Jesse Stoner, both 18, were dead.

Snohomish County deputy prosecutor Ed Stemler told Superior Court Judge Anita Farris that Sorensen's handling of the firearm "had some tragic consequences attached to it."

He stuck to an earlier plea agreement in recommending a 15-month sentence, the bottom punishment under state sentencing guidelines.

Sorensen's attorney, Richard Tassano, emphasized his client hadn't gone to the fight with a weapon, but wound up with one in his hands anyway because somebody else was armed.

He "found himself as a young man in a situation he was not able to cope with," Tassano said.

Sorensen apologized for breaking the law, but added, "I did what I felt I had to do."

Dennis Cramm is charged with two counts of first-degree murder. He faces a February trial.