SEATTLE — Even with time-off for good behavior, the earliest Seattle doctor Louis Chao Chen will be released from a Washington State prison is when he's 85 years old.
On Friday, the 44-year-old Chen was sentenced to 49 years behind bars for murdering his partner Eric Cooper and their two-year-old son, Cooper Chen, in their high-rise unit at the M Street Apartments in Seattle in August of 2011.
Chen showed no emotion as King County Superior Court Judge Bill Bowman chastised him for treating his long-time depression, paranoia and obsession with far too much cough syrup and alcohol, instead of seeking meaningful help from a medical professional.
Bowman said the decision to self-medicate lead to Chen's state of mind when he stabbed Cooper 177 times and slit the throat of the child they shared, an aggravating factor that contributed to Bowman's sentencing decision.
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"Cooper Chen was defenseless," Bowman told Chen. "After having been stabbed at least 22 times in the neck, Cooper Chen remained alive and walked down the hallway into the living room before he died."
On February 25, Chen pleaded guilty to a single count of Murder One and a count of Murder Two. The prosecution team, led by King County Senior Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Don Raz, felt Chen should spend 49 years behind bars.
Chen's defense team, including Todd Maybrown, Raymond McFarland and Barry Flegenheimer of Allen, Hansen, Maybrown and Offenbecher, P.S., believed he should receive half that because of his mental illness.
That argument didn't sway Bowman.
"When you analytically go through it, it fails at multiple different levels," Raz told KIRO 7 after court. "I can understand why they were offering it, because it was such an inexplicable crime, a horrific and tragic crime. You want to find some type of reason, as opposed to someone just going off the deep end."
If Chen lives long enough to serve out his prison term, he will be deported back to Taiwan upon release.
Cox Media Group