A Brush Prairie man convicted last month of manslaughter in the death of his 75-year-old father avoided a 20-year sentence Tuesday and instead was sentenced to about nine years in prison.
Ronald Ahlquist, 47, was on trial in Clark County Superior Court for letting his father, Norman Ahlquist, die of malnutrition and leaving his body to decompose as he continued to collect the man’s Social Security benefits. The jury found Ronald Ahlquist guilty of first- and second-degree manslaughter, two counts of second-degree identity theft and one count of second-degree theft. All of the charges were domestic-violence related.
Jurors found aggravating factors on four counts. The aggravating factors — based on the victim’s vulnerability and an egregious lack of remorse — would have allowed for the longer-than-normal sentence.
On Tuesday, Senior Deputy Prosecutor Abbie Bartlett argued that Ahlquist didn’t have to be his father’s caregiver but that he agreed to take on the role.
“I don’t think he intended to torture his father, but that was the result of his conduct,” she said.
Norman Ahlquist’s death was reported Oct. 7, 2013, by Ronald Ahlquist’s friend, Keith Runyon, after Ronald Ahlquist called him and requested help in transporting the body to the coroner’s office, according to a probable cause affidavit filed in Superior Court.
Law enforcement officers found the elderly man’s severely emaciated, decomposing body in the back of his son’s van. Norman Ahlquist’s body was wrapped in a soiled sheet and hidden in a deflated air mattress, the affidavit said.
Ronald Ahlquist faced a standard sentencing range of 102 to 136 months in prison. Bartlett asked that Ahlquist be sentenced to 240 months because of the aggravating factors that the jury had found.
However, Judge David Gregerson said that despite the “horrific neglect” and jury’s findings, he didn’t think the case warranted an exceptional sentence.
“We will never know if Norman would have lived another week, another month, another year,” Gregerson said, adding that what is known is that he deserved a better ending to his life.
He sentenced Ahlquist to 110 months in prison.
Before the judge handed down his decision, Ahlquist’s defense attorney, Tony Lowe, said, “This is not black and white like the state suggests.”
He said that Norman Ahlquist was suffering from a natural disease progression. He argued that even if he had been placed in hospice care, the result would have been the same. Norman Ahlquist had difficulty eating, Lowe said, which is why he lost so much weight. He weighed 85 pounds at the time of his autopsy, court records show.
Lowe said Norman Ahlquist wished to die on his property.
Jessica Prokop: 360-735-4551; jessica.prokop@columbian.com; twitter.com/JProkop16
