He ‘sprayed bullets across the neighborhood.’ This was his sentence in a Whatcom court
While several family members asked for leniency, neighbors who were traumatized by a 2021 Birch Bay shooting asked a Whatcom County judge this week to sentence the man responsible to the full 15 years in prison.
The prosecuting attorney called the shooting, which injured one person and lodged several bullets in at least one nearby house, a senseless attempt at vigilante justice.
Martin Dylan Siergiey, 37 of Bellingham, pleaded guilty Jan. 9 in Whatcom County Superior Court to one count of attempted second-degree murder and one count of drive-by shooting, both felonies. He was previously charged with one count of attempted first-degree murder and one count of drive-by shooting, but his attempted murder charge was amended down as part of a plea deal, according to court records.
On Wednesday, Jan. 18, Siergiey was sentenced in court to 12 years in prison, with three years probation.
As part of his sentencing, Siergiey is not allowed to possess a firearm and has to register as a felony firearm offender.
No contact orders were also put in place between Siergiey, the victim and several neighbors.
“I cannot undo the fear that I caused on that evening and I know my apology can’t make things right, but I still want the neighbors and everyone involved who were there that day to know how truly sorry I am for my horrible actions and the impact it had on each of them,” Siergiey said at his sentencing hearing Wednesday, Jan. 18.
At the hearing, Whatcom County Prosecuting Attorney Eric Richey said Siergiey attempted to kill the shooting victim and in taking the steps to do so, “sprayed bullets across the neighborhood and that should not be forgotten.”
Richey said Wednesday that he felt sympathy for Siergiey, but said he believed Siergiey had been misguided by a female family member’s allegations that the shooting victim had raped her.
Richey said Siergiey acted of his own volition, that the crime was senseless and that Siergiey should be punished for his actions, before asking the judge to sentence Siergiey to 14 years in prison.
“Frankly, it’s pretty clear, I don’t think the rape occurred and Mr. Siergiey acted like a white knight for nothing,” Richey said in court. “Ultimately, whether a rape occurred or not doesn’t matter, because these facts provided no reason for vigilante justice and our society cannot condone such.”
‘Out of character’
Siergiey’s defense attorney, Emily Beschen, said Wednesday that the shooting incident was “very out of character” for Siergiey, who has no prior criminal history, including misdemeanors and traffic tickets. She said prior to the shooting, Siergiey had a successful career as a craps dealer in several casinos.
Beschen said Siergiey was in the midst of a mental health crisis and agonized for months over the harm allegedly caused to a female family member before the 2021 shooting. She said Siergiey regretted his decisions and that he had a “great deal” of sympathy for the neighbors and fear caused by his actions.
Since the shooting and Siergiey’s release from jail pending trial, Siergiey has been attending therapy, seeing doctors and taking medication, Beschen said, adding that Siergiey was unlikely to commit another crime.
Sentencing Siergiey to anything other than the lower end of the standard range for his crimes was “incredibly harsh,” Beschen said, urging the judge to “look at the bigger picture” in this specific case. She asked that Siergiey be sentenced to the minimum nine years in prison for his convictions.
The shooting
Shortly after 5:45 p.m. on Feb. 19, 2021, Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office deputies responded to the 5500 block of Hillvue Road in Birch Bay for the report of a shooting, with at least one person injured, according to court records.
Siergiey drove to the Birch Bay home of a then 28-year-old man that evening. Siergiey asked the man, who was standing outside of his home, to confirm his name and then accused the man of sexually assaulting a female family member. Siergiey then pulled out a black automatic handgun and shot at the victim several times, according to court records.
The victim was struck in the right upper thigh by at least one bullet and suffered non-life-threatening injuries that were treated by medics, court records show.
At least two rounds also struck a neighbor’s house, with one hitting the neighbor’s headboard and the other hitting a closet in their bedroom.
Relative’s report
In winter 2020, a female family member called Siergiey and accused the shooting victim of raping her after she had gone to the man’s house. Siergiey then called law enforcement to report the rape. The woman, who court records state has past trauma with law enforcement and reporting violent crime, declined to cooperate with deputies, court records show.
After the shooting, the woman again told deputies the victim sexually assaulted her, but she declined to cooperate further. The shooting victim, who has not been formally charged, told deputies the woman came to his house in 2020 and that the two had consensual sex before the woman left and the victim never saw her again, the court records state.
In a psychological evaluation done in preparation for a jury trial, Siergiey said he ruminated on the woman’s assault report and that he had driven past the shooting victim’s house several times before the February 2021 shooting, The Bellingham Herald previously reported.
Siergiey ultimately turned himself in to law enforcement around 1 a.m. after the shooting, the records show.
Gun violence
Liane Budden said Wednesday that she was not “merely a frightened neighbor” on the night Siergiey fired multiple rounds from a handgun in Budden’s Birch Bay neighborhood.
Budden, who said she is a survivor of childhood gun violence, said she and her partner had just finished eating dinner in February when they heard gunshots. Several moments later, Budden said the shooting victim knocked on a window in their backyard and she let the man in.
In court, Budden recounted the steps she took that night, including turning the lights off, closing curtains, grabbing a medical first aid kit to help treat the victim’s gunshot wound and moving them all to the room that was furthest from the street — and the safest place in her mind to be in the moment.
Budden said throughout, she was afraid the shooter would come back and keep firing the gun.
“Panic was all around me,” Budden said. “When I was a child and living through the moments my drug-addicted paranoid parent ran around our house with a loaded gun, my heart would beat so hard I could see my shirt moving. Never in my life did I think I would experience that again.”
Budden said deputies walked around her house for hours after the shooting, while she scrubbed the victim’s blood from her kitchen floor and chair. She said her partner, who has brain trauma from his time in the military, regressed due to the shooting. Had the bullet missed the victim, it would have hit her partner in the head, killing him, Budden said.
“The shooting has had a profound effect on me. ... We were consumed by the ‘what ifs?’. To this day, if I think too much about the ‘what ifs’ I become nauseous and panicked,” she said. “I don’t want to imagine what it would have been like to watch my partner go from living to dead in that one instant.”
Budden said when she and her partner purchased a home, they made sure it was not on a street where cars could easily drive by — a direct response to the shooting. She said no sentence could erase that Siergiey pointed a gun at a living human being and pulled the trigger repeatedly with the intent to kill.
“Martin Siergiey had more than enough time to think about his actions, both on the day of the shooting and leading up to it. Instead, he was a gun-wielding, anger-riddled, loose cannon who took into no regard the consequences of his rage. He is not a victim and should not be treated like one,” Budden said.
Budden’s partner also spoke in court and said no one deserves to open their door and see a person firing a gun and shooting aimlessly into the neighborhood.
The shooting victim did not appear in court and did not issue a statement to be read on his behalf at Wednesday’s hearing. Richey said in court that the man was worried about missing work and the impacts that could have on his employment.
Two other neighbors who were also impacted during the shooting also were not present in court because they found it too difficult, Richey said.
Apology and remorse
Addressing the court Wednesday at his sentencing hearing, Siergiey said while there are still gaps in his memory from the night of the shooting, he did know that the Birch Bay neighborhood and community were hurt by his behavior and actions that February evening.
Siergiey apologized for his actions and said he is working “exceptionally hard” to ensure the situation doesn’t happen again.
Siergiey’s mother, who spoke, asked for a minimum sentence for her son and was one of more than a dozen family, friends and former coworkers who appeared in court in support of Siergiey at his sentencing hearing.
Siergiey’s wife told the court her husband was deeply sorry about his actions that took away the neighbors’ safety and for the trauma he caused.
His wife, who said she is a survivor of a gunshot wound, said her husband was not a criminal and was facing a mental health issue at the time of the shooting. She said her husband took his actions seriously and has since taken steps to address his mental health, including hospitalizing himself twice.
“This has forever changed our lives and being without my husband after this has been the most extreme of tortures. He was my rock and my safe place,” Siergiey’s wife said, asking for mercy for her husband.
Prison sentence
After listening to everyone speak, Whatcom County Superior Court Judge Rob Olson said he acknowledged the pain and fear caused by the shooting.
Olson said he was “at a loss to explain how someone could lose sight of their own moral sensibility and take the actions perpetrated by Mr. Siergiey.”
He said he believed Siergiey was remorseful and that the shooting was out of character for him, but said Siergiey is solely responsible for the circumstances he found himself in.
By seeking vigilante justice, Siergiey put innocent community members at serious risk of harm or death, Olson said. And just because the shooting victim didn’t appear in court Wednesday, it doesn’t make him any less of a victim, Olson added.
“I have to ask everyone to realize, but for the random happenstance, Mr. Siergiey might be here today being sentenced for multiple counts of outright murder. The dangerousness of his behavior cannot be understated,” Olson said.
Olson then sentenced Siergiey to 144 months in prison, with 36 months probation.
Resources
If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence or sexual assault, you can contact the following local resources for free, confidential support:
Domestic Violence & Sexual Assault Services: 24-hour Help Line: 360-715-1563, Email: info@dvsas.org.
Lummi Victims of Crime: 360-312-2015.
Tl’ils Ta’á’altha Victims of Crime: 360-325-3310 or nooksacktribe.org/departments/youth-family-services/tlils-taaaltha-victims-of-crime-program/
Bellingham Police: You can call anonymously at 360-778-8611, or go online at cob.org/tips.
WWU Survivor Advocacy Services at the Counseling & Wellness Center: 360-650-7982 or https://cwc.wwu.edu/survivorservices.
Brigid Collins Family Support Center: 360-734-4616, brigidcollins.org.
