Convicted killer seeks, doesn't find court mercy

COEUR d’ALENE — A Post Falls drug dealer serving 35 years for killing an associate after forcing him at gunpoint to eat a large quantity of meth must serve out his prison term, a First District Judge ordered Friday in Coeur d’Alene.

District Judge Cynthia K.C. Meyer said at a re-evaluation hearing that despite Shaun P. Kelly’s seeming remorse, his request for a reduced sentence and drug rehabilitation, Kelly’s behavior leading up to his prison term for drug delivery and second-degree murder were beyond the pale.

Kelly was sentenced to 35 years in prison for causing the 2015 death of 22-year-old Evan Larkin following an incident at a Post Falls home on Box Canyon Road in which he made Larkin prove his loyalty by eating a “two gram rock” of methamphetamine, according to court records.

When Larkin refused, Kelly threatened him with an M-16 style assault rifle, according to testimony at Kelly’s trial. Larkin ate the meth and began seizing, convulsing, foaming at the mouth, and eventually he died.

Kelly denied pointing a gun at Larkin, but told the court he gave Larkin the methamphetamine that killed him.

Kelly at Friday’s hearing said his 35-year sentence does not include drug treatment.

“Help me by modifying my fixed sentence,” Kelly, 45, asked the court via telephone from prison in Orofino.

He asked the court for a 10-year fixed sentence and treatment, but prosecutors and the judge held firm.

Deputy prosecutor Jed Whitaker said the case took several years to adjudicate, and that Kelly was given many chances to seek rehabilitation. After posting bond on the second-degree murder charge, Kelly stole a vehicle and led police on a high-speed chase.

“He had a chance his whole life,” Whitaker said. “He caused the death of another human being. While out, pending this case, he was putting the public at risk.”

Kelly will always be a risk to the community, Whitaker said.

Although addressing Kelly’s addiction was a consideration, Meyer said, it wasn’t the court’s main concern.

“You are a very dangerous man,” Meyer said. “The crimes you committed were heinous.”

Meyer refused to grant Kelly relief.

“You need to spend your life behind bars, and the public needs to be protected from you,” she said.

After Larkin’s death, another man who witnessed the incident asked Kelly what he should do with Larkin’s body. Kelly reportedly told the witness to drive Larkin to a field and dump the body.

“Like a sack of garbage,” Clay Larkin, Evan’s grandfather, said at Kelly’s sentencing last year. “My God, what were you thinking of? That was a human life that you took.”