PALMER — The young Anchorage man convicted of the 2014 machete murder of an elderly Butte raspberry farmer escaped a life sentence but will serve at least 30 years in prison.
Thomas Cottam Jr. was 23 when he was charged with first-degree murder in the death of 81-year-old Steven Garcia, who picked up Cottam as a hitchhiker. The younger man was sleeping on Garcia's couch at the farm, located along the Old Glenn Highway near the Knik River.
Cottam told investigators that Garcia came at him with a machete and he wrested it away before blacking out and coming to with the bloodied older man on the ground. Prosecutors argued during Cottam's trial last fall that Garcia was too infirm to start an attack.
Palmer Superior Court Judge Vanessa White on Friday sentenced Cottam to serve 45 years — the total sentence was 60 years with 15 suspended — and 10 years of probation.
A jury convicted Cottam of first- and second-degree murder as well as first-degree vehicle theft for stealing Garcia's car when he left the farm, also taking Garcia's dog and wallet.
Cottam's sentencing drew supporters of both men. Garcia's son, Theodore, spoke on behalf of his father and family. Cottam's father, mother and sister traveled from Tennessee to defend him.
The sentence is the lowest for first-degree murder he's seen in 29 years as a prosecutor and nearly 20 years in Palmer, Palmer District Attorney Roman Kalytiak said Monday. He requested Cottam be sentenced to 90 years in prison. The defense recommended 20 years.
"Cottam used a machete to hack a frail 81-year-old senior citizen, Steven Garcia, to death," Kalytiak wrote in an email. "Mr. Garcia ran a raspberry farm in the Butte area and was well-liked. He provided Cottam a job and place to live. After the murder, Cottam took Mr. Garcia's car and bought beer and cigarettes."
Cottam admitted he used methamphetamine daily from November 2013 to January 2014, according to Kalytiak's sentencing memorandum.
Cottam's friends and family vouched for his character, which "further supports the notion that drug use changed him or his brain," Kalytiak wrote. It's also possible, he continued, that Cottam's "homicidal tendencies" didn't manifest earlier in his life.
Under White's sentence, Cottam can get out in 30 years or less for good behavior, he said.
"Perhaps I'm an old-school prosecutor, but that seems light for this brutal and senseless murder," Kalytiak said.
But Cottam's attorney, public defender Bruce Brown, stood behind the judge's sentencing decision.
"Judge White properly considered that Mr. Cottam is a youthful offender without a prior criminal history, except for a misdemeanor DUI, and that he has good prospects for rehabilitation," Brown wrote, also in an email. "A 60-year sentence, even with 15 years suspended, is a good portion of Mr. Cottam's remaining life to be spent behind bars."
He said the public defender's office hasn't decided whether to appeal.
Brown's sentencing memorandum called Cottam "a thoughtful young man placed in a position where his fear overtook his reason and made him react disproportionately to the threat."
Another farm worker testified during trial that there may have been tension between Cottam and Garcia because Cottam hadn't been paid and couldn't leave the farm. The worker said Garcia was known to intimidate workers by waving a knife around and at one point said he "owned" Cottam because he took him in.
"This young man was carrying and reading the works of Henry David Thoreau, the great American pacifist and founder of non-violent civil disobedience in America," Brown wrote in his sentencing memo. "He suddenly found himself in a position with an employer he did not know well, who appeared angry and with an upraised machete, and he reacted in panic and fear."
Sentencing statutes gave White a range of 20 to 99 years when determining the sentence.