Man gets 6 years for killing brother with samurai sword
COOS BAY, Ore. -- As the two brothers argued, Lee Edwin Wallace pulled a knife.
His brother Nathan Todd Wallace grabed a homemade samurai sword.
Now one brother is dead, and the other is bound for prison.
Nathan Wallace pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the second degree on Monday after striking a deal with the Coos County district attorney to dismiss a second charge of unlawful possession of meth.
On Wednesday, a judge sentenced Wallace to 75 months prison for killing his own brother.
District attorney Paul Frasier said he had to look at a couple of factors and review a similar Coos County case before requesting a sentence.
"This was very similar to the Crooks case back in May of last year," Frasier said. "The law says I'm supposed to treat similarly situated defendants the same and I felt that I really couldn't factually distinguish the situation with Mr. Crooks or with Mr. Wallace."
Frasier said he also discussed potential sentencing options with Wallace's parents as well.
"They were in an impossible situation," he said. "They have one son that's dead and the other is accused of murder. What do you folks want to have happen, and they were very conflicted, and frankly, they did not tell me what they wanted me to do."
Last november, police arrested the 41-year-old Wallace after police were called to his home on West Central Boulevard in Coquille and found his 38-year-old brother on the ground with a single stab wound through his side.
