Two Dogs Salvatore Fasaga, 43, of Onalaska, was sentenced Monday to 116 months, or just over 9.5 years, in prison for an unlawful possession of a firearm charge he was convicted of in Lewis County Superior Court in July.
The conviction stems from a May 2018 incident where Fasaga was accused of fatally shooting Paul Snarski, also known as “Hound,” with a .45 caliber semi-automatic pistol at Fasaga’s Onalaska residence, then dismembering Snarski’s body and having other people dispose of Snarski’s remains, vehicle and shoes, according to court documents.
Judge J. Andrew Toynbee acquitted Fasaga on murder charges stemming from the incident at the end of a 10-day bench trial in Lewis County Superior Court in July. Toynbee found Fasaga guilty of the unlawful possession of a firearm charge at the same trial.
The main point of contention between King County prosecutors and Fasaga’s defense attorneys on Monday was how to interpret a statute that went into effect in July that affects Fasaga’s criminal offender score. In Washington state, higher criminal offender scores equate to a higher standard sentencing range.
The new statute, which was passed by the state Legislature in the 2023 session and went into effect in July, limits what juvenile criminal history gets considered when setting a person’s criminal offender score. If the statute retroactively affects Fasaga’s offender score, his new score is eight, making the standard sentencing range on the unlawful possession of a firearm charge 77 to 102 months in jail. If the statute doesn’t retroactively affect Fasaga’s offender score, his score remains 11, making the standard sentencing range for the current charge 87 to 116 months in jail.
State law prohibits judges from sentencing defendants above their standard sentencing ranges except in extreme circumstances.
In his ruling on Monday, Toynbee found that the new statute doesn’t impact Fasaga’s criminal offender score but made an additional finding that if his interpretation of the law is incorrect, there are “substantial and compelling reasons” to set Fasaga’s sentence above the standard range. Toynbee specifically cited violent offenses on Fasaga’s record and previous unlawful possession of a firearm convictions that Toynbee said demonstrate a “propensity for violence” as reasons for that finding.
While Fasaga’s attorneys, Peter T. Connick and Peter T. Geisness, indicated Fasaga wanted to speak at his sentencing hearing on Monday, they told Toynbee they advised him not to due to “overlapping issues” between this case and a still-active drive-by shooting case.
In that case, Fasaga is accused of using a .45 caliber semi-automatic pistol to shoot at a vehicle in Onalaska on July 10, 2018.
Fasaga is currently in custody at the Lewis County Jail on $1 million bail for the drive-by shooting case. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges and is scheduled to go to trial in January 2024.
The Lewis County Jail will calculate how much credit Fasaga is due for time served on the unlawful possession of a firearm conviction, according to Toynbee.
Fasaga has been in custody for a variety of different cases since July 2018.
