Six-year sentence for armed Bellingham home-invasion burglar

A young man must spend six years in prison for a home invasion at a Bellingham apartment where he beat the resident and held him and two friends at gunpoint, a Whatcom County judge ruled Wednesday morning, Dec. 2.

Around noon on a Saturday, Jan. 24, someone opened the security door of an apartment complex at 1225 Railroad Ave., near the Starbucks in downtown Bellingham. A young man was waiting nearby. He caught the door before it swung closed. He let in two other young men. They went upstairs to a third-floor apartment and knocked on the door.

The resident’s girlfriend, 20, answered to find three masked men dressed in all black. They burst in, used zip ties to restrain the woman, and held the resident, 23, and a male friend, 24, at gunpoint.

One of the intruders, Datyous Mahmoudian, then 19, tackled the resident, threw him to the ground and pistol-whipped him, leaving deep gashes to his brow near the temple, according to police reports. The victim, Connor Fradet, needed stitches for those injuries, and he had been kicked in the back and torso.

The other victim was ordered to the ground at gunpoint. He felt the barrel pressed between his shoulders. Once the gunman let go, the man got up and called 911. The intruders came back at him. One aimed a gun at him and, when he fought back, a second man punched him in the face.

Meanwhile, the woman broke free and ran outside screaming. The intruders ran off, too. Neighbors tackled Mahmoudian, who had a gun in his pocket, in a hallway. The other gunmen escaped.

Police found jars of marijuana, thousands of dollars in cash and ornate smoking pipes. Fradet was dealing the drug out of his apartment, according to Mahmoudian’s charging papers. Fradet wasn’t charged with a crime.

Over the next few months, as Mahmoudian sat in jail, detectives tracked down three other suspects: Daniel Joseph Neblic Weber, 20; Eddie Roy Thompson, 20; and a boy, 17.

The investigation suggested Mahmoudian was the “impetus behind” the crime, said the deputy prosecutor, James Hulbert. Before the attack, he said, Mahmoudian tried to lure the victim outside, but Fradet sensed something fishy and declined. Hulbert rejected the notion that Fradet’s marijuana dealing put himself at risk.

“It’s one thing to have a situation where somebody is out in public, doing something that may have some risk to it,” Hulbert said. “But this is a situation where somebody was in the safety and sanctity of their own home.”

Two of the other defendants have been sentenced. Weber is awaiting trial. He has pleaded not guilty. Charging papers allege he drove the other three — armed, in dark clothes, their shoes taped over with duct tape — to the scene of the crime. His story changed several times, in a police interview, about how much he knew, according to the charges. Then he asked police if he could get money in exchange for information. Detectives told him no.

The 17-year-old boy received a three-year sentence to a juvenile rehabilitation program.

Thompson was arrested in April after police in Clearlake, Calif., got a tip from the U.S. Marshals Service. Last month, Superior Court Judge Charles Snyder sentenced Thompson to four years in prison for first-degree burglary, two counts of second-degree assault and unlawful imprisonment.

Fradet spoke at Thompson’s hearing on Nov. 5. He said it took about two months to recover from the attack and that he has scarring on his face and back. He called the suggested prison sentences “light.”

Victims did not speak at the court hearing Wednesday.

Other than a minor in possession conviction as a teenager, Mahmoudian had no criminal history.

“He’s a good kid, from a very good family, who hadn’t really ever been in trouble before,” said his attorney, Lee Grochmal. “He made a terrible mistake, and didn’t really understand the consequences of what he was doing at the time.”

Family and friends wrote letters to the court calling Mahmoudian “loyal,” “flawlessly polite,” and a good student who worked hard. Mahmoudian emigrated with his family from Iran as a child, and he has since become a U.S. citizen. He worked at McDonald’s, at a refinery, and for a caterer, according to a sentencing memorandum. At the time of the crime, he was attending Whatcom Community College, with plans to go on to the University of Washington.

On Wednesday morning, he read a one-minute statement in court taking responsibility for the crime.

“I’ve forgiven myself and hope that, with time, the victims will forgive me as well,” Mahmoudian said. “I hope others can learn from my mistakes, and that I can set a positive example for my peers.”

Mahmoudian pleaded guilty to one count of burglary in the first degree and three counts of assault in the second degree. Judge Snyder approved a plea deal that will put Mahmoudian in prison for six years. As he handed down the sentence, Snyder responded to the messages from Mahmoudian’s friends and family.

“The person that appeared at this apartment that night is not a person that they have ever met,” he said. “So it is difficult for them, as it is for me, to understand how somebody with the background that you have could behave in the way that you behaved on this night.”

In jail, Mahmoudian has gone through treatment for substance abuse and Moral Reconation Therapy, a program meant to reduce recidivism.

“He’s done everything he can to try to make amends,” Grochmal said, “and that’s what he plans to keep doing.”

This story was originally published December 1, 2015 at 1:10 AM with the headline "Six-year sentence for armed Bellingham home-invasion burglar."