Shane Lee Sanders

CANYON CITY – Shane Lee Sanders has been sentenced to six-plus years in prison for his late-night shooting spree last October at the Timbers Inn and RV Park in Seneca.

Appearing last Thursday in Grant County Circuit Court, Sanders pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree attempted assault and two counts of coercion. The pleas were part of a settlement agreement hammered out in a three-hour closed conference before visiting Judge Michael C. Sullivan.

In open court, Sullivan sentenced Sanders to a total of 73 months in prison.

Sanders has been in the Grant County Jail since the Oct. 8 incident, when gunshots punctured the night silence in Seneca.

Authorities said the uproar began when Sanders was with his girlfriend, Tammy Moyer, in a cabin at the Timbers; he checked her cell phone and became enraged about a text message he found. District Attorney Jim Carpenter said Sanders pointed a gun at her and even pulled the trigger, but the gun didn’t go off.

Moyer escaped to the next cabin, where her son and a girlfriend were staying. The son called 911, as Sanders fired shots into the cabin, at a nearby trailer and at a pickup truck.

When Undersheriff Todd McKinley responded, he was forced to take cover as Sanders fired toward him.

At dawn, Sanders fled across the nearby golf course onto private ranch land, triggering a daylong search and a blockade of the roads into town. He turned himself in that evening.

A Grant County grand jury indicted Sanders on 26 counts including attempted aggravated murder, menacing, coercion, criminal mischief and recklessly endangering another.

The hearing last week brought the dismissal of all but the two coercion counts from the original indictment.

A new filing by Carpenter lodged the attempted assault charges.

Sanders was in court with his attorney, Robert Raschio, as the judge pronounced the sentence. The terms include:

• For coercion, a class C felony – 25 months on each of the two counts, to be served concurrently, with credit for time served, and 36 months of post-prison supervision on each count. He was ordered to have no contact with the victims.

• Attempted assault, a class A felony – 20 months on the first count and 28 months on the second, to be served consecutively, with no credit for time served, and with 36 months of post-prison supervision.

Sanders, if he qualifies, may apply for treatment and or programs that could reduce the amount of actual time spent in prison, but he must serve a minimum of 36 months before being released on any alternatives to incarceration.

Sanders declined to make a statement at the hearing.

Of six people named as victims in the original indictment, only Moyer spoke last week, attending the hearing by teleconference.

She told the judge she fears Sanders will come after her when he gets out of prison.

She said the events of that night have affected her for life, and she can’t even go shopping or be in crowds without fear.

“I’m scared to death when a gun fires,” she said. “My life has changed.”

She said she hopes Sanders gets help “and doesn’t do this to another female again when he gets out.”

The hearing also dealt with the status of three guns related to the incident – weapons that were hidden that night in October and remained missing until just a few weeks ago.

Carpenter said Sanders and his attorney accompanied authorities to the Seneca site where he had stashed the guns. One gun was located then, and Sheriff Glenn Palmer later found the others with help of a metal detector.

In court, the guns were described as a .357 Magnum, a Smith and Wesson 40 caliber, and a 300 Winchester rifle.

Sanders forfeited any right to any guns seized from the incident.