Former WWU student sentenced for racist, homophobic graffiti on campus
A former Western Washington University student who was expelled after allegedly writing racist and hate-filled slurs on campus property has been given a suspended sentence.
Shayne Robert Merwin, 22, of Gold Bar, pleaded guilty on Jan. 13 in Whatcom County Superior Court to harassment and first-degree criminal trespass, both gross misdemeanors. Merwin was sentenced to 364 days in jail, with all of them suspended, according to court records.
Merwin, who was arrested in November 2018, was originally charged with a hate crime. That charge was pleaded down from malicious harassment (Washington’s felony hate crime statute) to harassment, the court records show.
Merwin will begin serving his suspended sentence at a later date, once the judge receives and signs a final copy of the judgment and sentence, which is currently being worked on, according to Whatcom County Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Benjamin Pratt.
A no-contact order was put in place between Merwin and multiple people, and he is prohibited from returning to WWU’s campus, according to court records.
In December of 2018, WWU expelled Merwin from school and he was trespassed from the Bellingham campus. The release said Merwin would not be allowed to re-enroll, which is the most significant discipline the university can levy through the student conduct process.
Merwin has not been a student at WWU since fall 2018, according to Paul Cocke, a university spokesperson.
Court records show Merwin transferred to Washington State University in Pullman. A spokesperson for WSU did not respond to a request for comment.
In November 2018, students at WWU reported racist graffiti at Nash Residence Hall at 689 High St. A university police officer spoke with a man who said he overheard Merwin talking about finding an electronic key and using a marker to deface property with racial slurs and threats of sexual violence, the court records state.
One woman said she, Merwin, another man and another woman entered Nash Hall using a found key. The woman told police she saw Merwin use a marker to write on boards and name tags along the hall, as well as overheard him use racial slurs, according to previous reporting in The Bellingham Herald.
None of the four had permission to enter the residence hall.
Nine name tags on residents’ rooms on four floors were defaced, and the following day a racial epithet was found on the Wright’s Triangle sculpture near the Ross Engineering Building and a poster in front of Arntzen Hall was defaced with racist language. An additional racist word was found on a pillar at Fairhaven College, The Herald reported.
The vandalism, which caused approximately $150 worth of damage, targeted Black, Latino, Japanese and LGBTQIA+ communities.
Several students who lived in the residence hall with Merwin said they were aware of Merwin’s intolerance for people who were different from him, and one woman reported him three times to her resident director, according to The Western Front campus newspaper.
