Dale Cramm takes stand

He says son's gunshots chased assailant away

By Scott North

Herald Writer

The father of a convicted double-murderer insisted Monday that he is alive today because his son began blasting away with a military-style rifle May 30 after a fistfight outside his home escalated into gunfire.

Dale Brian Cramm, 45, testified in Snohomish County Superior Court that he was on his knees being held at gunpoint and pleading for his life when his son, Dennis Cramm, 18, began shooting at his assailant with an SKS rifle.

"My son came running out and started shooting and scared (the gunman) away. Saved my life," the elder Cramm said.

But under questioning from deputy prosecutor John Adcock, Dale Cramm admitted lying to police in early statements he gave regarding the shooting. He also offered testimony that was inconsistent with that of other witnesses and raised questions about whether he was even conscious during some of the melee.

The elder Cramm's testimony came during a hearing before Superior Court Judge Linda Krese, who has been asked to consider granting Dennis Cramm a new trial. The judge said she'll issue a written ruling Friday.

Dennis Cramm was convicted Feb. 26 of two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Jason Thompson and Jesse Stoner, both 18. He's been sentenced to 60 years in prison.

Dale Cramm had been called as a witness at his son's trial, but he declined to testify, asserting his Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination. He later changed his mind.

Dennis Cramm's attorney, Royce Ferguson of Everett, argued Monday that the elder Cramm's testimony could have been critical in helping convince jurors that his client shot in self-defense or in defense of others.

"There actually was someone who was afraid of dying," he said. "It wasn't made up."

It doesn't matter who Dennis Cramm was trying to save, because shooting to protect life can be a lawful act, Ferguson said.

"Does a liar have a life? Does a rotten father have a life?" he asked rhetorically.

Deputy prosecutor John Adcock told the judge Dale Cramm's statements about what happened that night are "varied and fluid, to put it mildly."

The elder Cramm waived his right against self-incrimination on Monday and agreed to be questioned under oath about the fight and shootings.

Adcock put Dale Cramm through at-times blistering cross-examination. Before it was over, Cramm admitted lying to police and also hiding some of the spent shell casings that littered his yard.

Adcock also hammered on inconsistencies in Dale Cramm's version of what happened, pointing out, through questions, that the man was claiming he had pleaded not to be shot at the same time he insisted a gunman had put a .38-claiber pistol in his mouth.

Dale Cramm also claimed he was knocked unconscious when at least one, maybe two, of the people at his home that night kicked him in the head. When Adcock asked the elder Cramm how he could recall what had happened while he was insensible, Dale Cramm said he actually was "semi-conscious, lying on the ground, bullets flying over."

Adcock told Krese that Dale Cramm isn't a credible witness. Still, jurors were aware from others who testified that he likely did have a gun pointed at him that night, he said.

Jurors found Dennis Cramm guilty of first-degree murder because he showed "extreme indifference to human life" when he repeatedly shot into the car carrying the unarmed Stoner and Thompson.