A Gresham man who fatally stabbed his neighbor during a dispute over a parking spot predicted he would die in prison while serving his eight-year sentence — even as the victim’s family maintained the punishment was too light.
Shawn Hamilton, 55, pleaded guilty Friday to first-degree manslaughter and said he expects to succumb to diabetes while behind bars.
“I will die in prison because of my health,” Hamilton said through tears as he sat in a wheelchair. “I am very, very sorry with every part of my soul and heart. This was the biggest mistake of my life.”
Hamilton then changed course, claiming he feared he was about to be strangled when he stabbed Robert “Randy” Ricketts, 68, once in the heart after Ricketts told him not to park along a red-painted fire lane at the Hogan Woods Apartments in Gresham on Sept. 3, 2021.
Witnesses told police that Hamilton had been acting aggressively and hadn’t been harmed by Ricketts in any way before the stabbing, according to a bail memo written by prosecutors.
Multnomah County Circuit Court Judge Heidi Moawad admonished Hamilton for trying to shift blame before sentencing him to eight years and four months in state prison.
“I wish you had just started and ended with that sincere apology,” she said. “This was never going to be a self-defense case.”
Moawad granted Hamilton credit for time served and ruled him eligible for sentence reduction programs during the last two years of his sentence.
Ricketts, a retired limo driver and a Marine veteran, was the eldest of five siblings and the father of two, according to his brother, Joey Ricketts. They grew up in a house with no running water in the hills off Skyline Boulevard and later attended Lincoln High School.
“This was a senseless killing over a parking spot,” Joey Ricketts said. “My brother’s life for this guy’s eight (year sentence). The whole family is disappointed.”
