A man was sentenced Wednesday to serve four years in prison for beating up one of his friends, who had called him a racial slur, in a Juneau apartment last April.
Surrounded by supporters in the courtroom gallery, Marcos y Galindo, 27, stood up in front of Juneau Superior Court Judge Philip Pallenberg and offered a public apology to the man he hit, identified in court documents as Christopher Davenport.
“Nobody deserves to be hit the way I hit that guy,” Galindo said. “... I take full responsibility for everything.”
A former MS-13 gang member in California, Galindo explained that he has left that lifestyle behind, pointing to the facial tattoos that he had lasered off. But he said it seems as if each time he takes two steps forward, he takes a step back.
“I was 19 years old the last time I was convicted of a crime,” he said. “I thought I put all this behind me, I thought I was completely done with it.”
Davenport was found wandering downtown at about 4 a.m. on April 27, 2012, bleeding from the head, clothes soaked in blood, asking for an ambulance. He suffered lacerations to his head, and his right ear, which was almost lost.
When interviewed by police at the hospital, Davenport told police he was drinking Four Loko, a type of malt liquor, with Galindo and two of Galindo’s friends at Galindo’s apartment at Marine View. The assault took place after the two friends had left and it was just Galindo and Davenport in the apartment, Davenport told police.
“The last thing I remember is Marcos hitting me in the head with two closed hammer fist strikes,” Davenport said, according to the affidavit.
Davenport either passed out or was knocked out and woke up in the apartment about four hours later before staggering out of the apartment building to find help, police said.
Police found Galindo still inside the apartment sleeping on the couch and they interviewed him. Galindo said he didn’t know if he assaulted Davenport, but that Davenport had called him a “wetback” during the evening, the affidavit states.
“I don’t know why Chris would say this happened,” Galindo is quoted as telling police. “Maybe I did it. I don’t know. I don’t understand why I would do it.”
Galindo was charged with two counts of first-degree assault, a felony that can carry up to 20 years in prison, and one count of second-degree assault, a felony that can carry up to 10 years.
He pleaded guilty in December to the second-degree assault charge, and in exchange for his plea, prosecutors dismissed the other charges. Because he has a prior felony in California, he was presumptive to serve four to seven years in prison.
On Wednesday, Assistant District Attorney Angie Kemp showed the judge pictures of the victim after the attack. The victim did not attend the hearing.
“It was certainly a serious felony level assault,” she said.
Galindo’s attorney Assistant Public Defender Eric Hedland said Galindo, who is from California and had recently moved to Juneau for work, has not lived a sheltered life and grew up a rough environment living by street and jail rules.
That’s not to make excuses for his behavior but to provide context for his violent reaction, Hedland said. But when Galindo is calm, he has much to offer, as evidenced by the people who appeared in court to support him, Hedland said.
“He wants to go to college and make something of his life,” Hedland said.
Galindo told the judge he blames himself for drinking that night when he should have known better.
“I turn into a classic case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” he said. “I don’t remember — I remember the night: us drinking, everybody having a good time. Next thing I know I’m taking a shower, taking bloody clothes off and falling asleep on the couch.”
He described the sentence as a wake-up call, especially since he has a one-and-a-half-year-old daughter now to take care of.
“This has been one big eye-opener,” he said. “For one night of drinking, I lost my fiancé, my daughter is 1,500 miles away and I’m losing four years of my life. Do I deserve it? Yeah, I deserve it 100 percent. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt.”
He also said he read the pre-sentence report that a probation officer wrote about him, and he said he doesn’t want to be that person.
“I hated the person I was reading about,” he said. “This is a horrible person. I really believe I am not that person. ... Time for me to grow up.”
Looking at the pictures of Davenport’s bloodied face, which Pallenberg described as “swelled up like a beach ball,” Pallenberg remarked, “It’s an ugly crime. Those were some ugly pictures.”
He added, “It is two steps forward, one step back. This is a big step back.”
Still, the judge told Galindo that a person’s past does not define who they are.
“As a judge, I have to believe in the possibility of redemption, I have to believe that people can change,” Pallenberg said. “If I didn’t believe that, then all the things that the Constitution tells us that judges have to consider would be meaningless because the Constitution says courts are supposed to consider a sentence that will act as a deterrent. If you couldn’t deter people, if people couldn’t change and be deterred, then that would just be fiction. The Constitution says that judges are supposed to impose sentences based on the goal of rehabilitation. If people couldn’t be rehabilitated, then that would just be fiction. So I have to believe that people can change — because they can.”
• Contact reporter Emily Russo Miller at 523-2263 or at emily.miller@juneauempire.com.
Comments (41)
Add commentMS13
Once a gangbanger...always a gangbanger. Good luck with this kind of trash, Juneau.
I'm more in Pallenberg's corner on this
This sorry incident is as much a testament to the dangers of alcohol---If you're going to leave a past like that behind, you have to leave the habits of that past as well, most especially chemical dependency
My thoughts exactly, Jamison
We keep reading these police reports, with the added notation "alcohol was a factor".
This is something our community has some degree of control over. The City could start to reduce the number of liquor licenses available in the downtown area - there are almost as many bars and liquor stores as jewelry stores. Eliminate package sales. Restrict hours.
yeah Lat
Lets punish everyone else for these types of peoples actions.
*rolls eyes*
@Lat58
Once a socialist ideologue, always a socialist ideologue. Lets not address education, treatment and personal responsibility. Instead we'll ban or diminish availability to everyone including the majority, which are law abiding citizens. Once again you work to diminish my civil liberties because of a few bad apples.
Their are places for you comrade, but not in Juneau.
Latitude58
I don't see anywhere that Lat said "let's ban alcohol 100%". If you, AlaskanStyle and KetchikanJan, don't think that Juneau needs a little bit more restriction here and there, you're dreaming. Having a little bit more control over all of the drunks downtown isn't "punishing everyone else".
I think it's just so
I think it's just so refreshing to read about a felon in this town who actually shows some real remorse. When a person spends their entire life in a criminal environment, it can take more than a new location and a willingness to change, it can take rock bottom (err 4 years in prison) for positive changes to happen and stick. Galindo is still young; he can definitely still become the man he wants to be once he's out of prison...as long as he stops drinking. Clearly, this is a person in need of sobriety.
Fin
Would you go so far as to dictate where a church or any house of worship could or couldn't be built? Lets, for the sake of this hypothetical, say that the zoning laws were equal, would you prohibit the building of a church in an area that you see as highly Pious? Are you willing to offer one of these groups, churches or package stores, more freedom than the other? One is selling personal salvation, the other selling personal waste. Or perhaps you find both equally distasteful and would prefer banning them both. Or is NIMBY you choice? Not in MY back yard, take it somewhere else!
Chronic inebriates are going to congregate in areas where they can easily obtain their drug of choice. ie. if you move stores to Lemon Creek or the Valley, take a guess where your drunks are going move? You've not created a solution, you've only MOVED the problem. Has your ban worked? NO. I can only assume your next move will be to ban these beverages all together. Again you've ignored the only logical solutions, those being education, treatment and personal accountability.
You and comrade Lat58 could be roomies.
You guys are drunk....
if you think that by reducing the number of liquor stores and hours are going to make a difference!!! People will just buy more, more often. Tired of people blaming it on others or that they are addicted or it's the way they grew up. I smoked for 20 plus years and quit cold turkey; I know people who grew up in alcoholic homes and don't drink or go to bars; I know people who were raised in Christian homes that are druggies and alcoholics....those are just cop outs!!!! People need to start being more responsible and held accountable for THEIR actions!!!! Quite blaming society!!!!
Balcked out?
Galindo clearly remembers being called a wetback before he blind-sided Davenport, and he clearly remembers taking off his bloody clothes to take a shower afterwards, but he doesn't remember anything about the attack?
Does anybody else smell something fishy about this recollection?
Thank you, fin
Not once did I say that personal responsibility, and self control weren't required. But we're talking about the heavy marketing of a powerful drug in large quantities to a population that has proven that they can't resist it.
Are your 'civil liberties' diminished when there are laws passed saying you can't drive drunk? Are civil liberties of 15-year-olds diminished when the law says they can't buy alcohol? Are your civil liberties diminished when your employer says you'll be fired if you show up to work drunk?
Of course not. Reasonable restrictions on alcohol and other drugs are understood to be rational responses to the fact that humans are susceptible to irrational decisions resulting from alcohol.
Walk around downtown. Look at the stumbling drunks, the vomit, the urine, the filth and violence, read the police reports...then look at all of the liquor stores and bars. Do you see a connection? Do you? No? Then you must have a financial interest in one of those establishments.
WoW
Sounds like someone doesn't want her social life messed with. Alcohol is aweful and it makes people stupid. Bars are havens for drunk, stupid people. Do I want less congregation of drunk, stupid people in my community......you better believe it.
Them are fight'n words
Maybe Judge Pallenberg should be appointed to the Joe Allen case. He will give a guy 4 years for beating up a drunk instigator in HIS OWN home, yet Judge Menendez gives Joe Allen a guy who goes around breaking in to OTHER PEOPLES homes and god knows what else, 15 months to serve for his last two convictions. With one reduced down to a criminal trespass, knowing that he has 15 more felony charges coming down the pike. I guess we all just have to wait and see
I’m not sticking up for Galindo, but I think the punishment should fit the crime and be consistent between all judges.
“And thine eye shall not pity; but life shall go for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.” Deuteronomy (ch. XIX, v. 21)
Latitude and Fin
You're pretty naive if you really think reducing the number of bars and liquor stores is going to solve the problem (and I do not have a financial interest in any bar or liquor store).
@ payattention
If you are referring to me, I don't drink nor do I visit bars. I am just tired of people not taking more responsibility for their actions.
Yeeahhh....
There's a reason alcohol is still a problem in dry communities...because people who want to get drunk will. get. drunk regardless of the number of liquor stores/bars in a community. That tactic is proven ineffective. Next...
They could make it harder by
They could make it harder by not carrying the huge jug of cheap alcohol... These bums aren't buying cognac... Cut out the super cheap booze and they will limit access. or increase burglary...
Lessons learned
When you're getting drunk with former gang members, don't insult them.
You guys get really riled up
You guys get really riled up over my one comment saying we need a LITTLE BIT more restriction. I said nothing of restricting hours, limiting the amount of alcohol, closing bars or moving bars. I meant that possibly the bars could stop selling to people who are flat out wasted. It's illegal to do so anyway. Same goes for liquor stores. When I go in to a liquor store to buy something there are people stumbling and breathing their booze breath on me more often than not. Also KetchikanJan what do churches have to do with my comment? Nothing? Alright. Calm down.
Let's...
People will always seek to restrict the rights of others, as long as the rights they believe they are entitled are not infringed upon.
Business will always seek to control the legislation of their industry. It is far easier to monopolize a market through government than through fair competition.
We retain the right to look inside your home, but nobody has the right to look inside mine.
heavy marketing?
Latitude58 -
Are you talking about the neon signs in the windows of liquor stores downtown? Or are you saying that liquor store owners and bartenders regularly stand outside and peddle business on the sidewalks?
"Walk around downtown. Look at the stumbling drunks, the vomit, the urine, the filth and violence, read the police reports...then look at all of the liquor stores and bars. Do you see a connection? Do you? No? Then you must have a financial interest in one of those establishments."
A majority of the people who purchase & drink alcohol downtown do so responsibly. There will always be people who find a way to get drunk and contribute to the downtown filth you speak of.
You should seek change by helping those who contribute to the "filth" or seek change at the enforcement level. Until then, don't point fingers at the businesses who operate responsibly. Your anti-liquor store & anti-bar whining is painfully old.
Sentencing
Galindo got such a harsh sentence because of a previous felony. I have faith (hope) that Joe Allen will get additional time now that he has felony charges.
WOW Fin.....
Can we say narcissist? Lat was the one talking about reduction of hours, stores and product availability.....
man..
Alcohol sucks but i will also admit that there really isnt much that we can do with that problem.
If only this guy was smoking the ganj instead of drinking that night, i dont think he would've been as violent... Just sayin.
Socialists
We just have to deal with socialists as they are and not make the mistake of expecting any honor or decency from them. Keep in mind that we are not any more likely to convince a socialist to become patriotic than they are to convince patriots to become lowlife commie bastard traitors.
Ya!
I agree with KKK_Man Alaska! Because nothing says patriotism like squashing other peoples freedoms and opinions.
.
They flee from cali to start BS up here eh.
@XXL:
Lol! Lay off the Rush Limpbaugh bro, it's pickling your brain. (Worse than alcohol) Folks like you are a huge part of the reason the GOP is doing a swirly down the drain. Restore sanity, civility and compromise to the political process - and stop with the villianizing aka McCarthyism.
Wow alaskangirlygirl
Can we say narcissist? I clearly referenced ketchikanjan and not you. Breathe.
Davenport
It is easy to pick on him because he is the focus of the article but has anyone ever took the time to check out the supposed victim? Davenport has an extremely long criminal history with theft, trespass, DUI, supplying minors with alcohol, and other alcohol related crimes. Most all his crimes were committed while he was under the influence of alcohol