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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2016
Trial details Brush’s terror campaign vs. Lisa Bonney
Judge reimposes
88-year sentence
By NATALIE ST. JOHN
EO Media Group
SOUTH BEND, Wash. —
At the conclusion of a Nov. 15
bench trial in Pacific County
Superior Court, Lisa Bon-
ney’s killer, Brian Brush, 54,
was convicted of aggravated
domestic violence, and sen-
tenced to 1,060 months in a
state prison — again.
Though Judge Michael
Sullivan is well-known for
his thoughtful approach, he
needed only 10 minutes to
decide on a verdict for Brush,
and even less time to impose
the same roughly 88-year sen-
tence that Brush first received
in 2012.
Brush “deserves to spend
the rest of his life knowing
that he will never get out of
prison, and also knowing he
will not receive any sympa-
thy from this court,” Sullivan
said. “I’ve said enough.”
As witnesses, including
the victim’s daughter, Eliz-
abeth Bonney, and friend,
Dan Driscoll, gave testimony,
it became clear that in the
months leading up to her mur-
der, Lisa Bonney’s life had
been chaotic and terrifying,
due to what Prosecutor Mark
McClain characterized as a
campaign of “psychological
torture.” Brush followed Bon-
ney, a Long Beach resident,
all over the Peninsula, called
her constantly, and kept her
from seeking help by threat-
ening to humiliate her or cre-
ate legal problems for her,
witnesses said.
Background
Brush, who was Bon-
ney’s estranged fiancé, fatally
shot her on Sept. 11, 2009.
He was convicted of first-de-
gree murder in 2011. Typ-
ically, first-degree murder
with a firearm would draw a
sentence of 25 to 31 years.
However, Brush received an
exceptional 1,060-month sen-
tence, due to an “aggravating
factor” of “aggravated domes-
tic violence.” Brush success-
fully appealed the aggravated
Natalie St. John/EO Media Group
Brian Brush, 54, was once again sentenced to about 88 years in prison during a Novem-
ber trial in Pacific County Superior Court. Brush was convicted of first degree murder for
the 2009 shooting of his former fiancée, Lisa Bonney. However, the court had to redo the
sentencing, after Brush got the original sentence thrown out on a technicality.
domestic violence component
of his conviction, by argu-
ing that the court had made
a procedural error. His case
went all the way to the state
Supreme Court.
In July 2015, the state
Supreme Court justices
ruled that the county either
had to sentence Brush
within the standard range,
or prove in a new trial that
Brush had engaged in an
ongoing pattern of abuse
that occurred over a “pro-
longed period of time.”
Brush, who had been in a
state prison in Walla Walla,
was sent back to Pacific
County Jail to await resen-
tencing last summer.
Brush waived his right
to a jury during the Nov. 15
trial, so Judge Sullivan alone
decided the outcome.
Inside the courtroom
Dressed in a blue cot-
ton dress shirt and too-large
khaki pants, Brush had the
pale, puffy complexion of an
inmate who has had too lit-
tle sunlight and too much jail
food.
He has not fared well in
lockup. At 54, Brush is on 27
different medications for his
complex of physical and men-
tal health ailments, according
to his Aberdeen attorney Erik
Kupka. Brush’s mostly bald
head is shaved, and his back
stooped. He walks with the
shuffle of a much older man.
For most of the roughly
five-hour trial and sentencing,
Brush was silent. He showed
little emotion, as he alternated
between scribbling notes on a
yellow legal pad, and staring
at the table. He did not testify.
Bonney’s father, Gene
Klingler, sat in the front,
center bench, with his close
friend Rick Haug at his side.
Other family members and
a domestic violence advo-
cate made up most of the
very small audience. On the
far side of the courtroom, an
older couple sat alone. While
the man took notes in a little
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book, the woman quietly cried
from time to time.
Different in hindsight
In late July 2009, Brush
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attacked Bonney’s car with
a hammer and destroyed her
camera, then falsely accused
her of assault and had her
arrested. However, much of
his abusive behavior involved
stalking, harassing and threat-
ening Bonney and her daugh-
ters. These forms of abuse are
often invisible to people out-
side of the relationship, and
can damage the target’s con-
fidence so severely that they
don’t realize they are victims
of domestic violence, or don’t
think anyone would believe
them.
Witnesses said few peo-
ple realized the relationship
had gone from volatile to
dangerous until the very end.
Berglund said Bonney ratio-
nalized Brush’s behavior by
saying things like, “But he’s a
really nice guy.” It didn’t seem
necessary at the time, Ber-
glund said, but he now wishes
he had called 911 when Brush
suddenly appeared.
Although Bonney was
clearly afraid of Brush by
August 2009, she didn’t want
to get police involved, espe-
cially after Brush had her
arrested.
“We were wrong in that
situation” Long Beach Police
officer Casey Meling said
matter-of-factly, when he
explained that police initially
believed Bonney had been the
primary aggressor in the ham-
mer incident.
A swift decision
As Sullivan prepared to
announce the verdict, the
courtroom was silent. In the
front row, Elizabeth Bon-
ney sat tall and composed,
looking straight ahead. Next
to her, her grandfather took
slow, deep breaths.
“Brian Brush did exhibit
an ongoing pattern of abuse,”
Sullivan began. “The courts
do find that these constituted
an aggravating factor. … I’m
very comfortable beyond a
reasonable doubt with mak-
ing that finding.”
Sullivan said that he had
found the witnesses — espe-
cially Elizabeth Bonney —
“to be credible.”
Though Kupka requested a
standard sentence for his client,
Sullivan said he saw no rea-
son why the court should give
a standard sentence after going
to the trouble of re-establishing
the aggravated DV factor.
“The court, first of all, is
not going to stay within the
standard range,” Sullivan
said, noting that he saw “no
mitigating factors”.
“Your
client
really
deserves no sympathy from
the court. The court is impos-
ing 1,060 months total,” Sul-
livan said.
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