Southern Humboldt resident Ryan Anthony Tanner was sentenced this morning to more than 39 years in state prison for shooting a man to death and terrorizing his own neighbors during a violent rampage in February 2020.

Judge Kaleb Cockrum, in sentencing Tanner for a slew of charges including voluntary manslaughter, kidnapping and arson, indicated he thought Tanner was a poor candidate for rehabilitation. His crimes, the judge said, were acts of pure selfishness.

Tanner shot 33-year-old Jason Todd Garrett to death with an assault rifle after forcing the Fortuna man to get into a bathtub in a remote cabin owned by Tanner’s father. He also set fire to the van Garrett had been riding in and burned down his father’s cabin to hide evidence.

About 10 of Garrett’s family members and friends attended the sentencing, with Garrett’s uncle, Utah resident Glenn Taylor, reading a statement on their behalf.

Taylor said his nephew’s death has been “excruciatingly painful” for the family, particularly for Garrett’s mother and the two younger brothers who idolized him.

He recalled the phone call from Garrett’s mother — Taylor’s sister — on Feb. 17, 2020. She was so distraught she was barely comprehensible.

“She said her son Jason had been kidnapped and tortured by a man named Ryan Tanner,” Taylor said. Tanner had been arrested that day.

A couple of days later Garrett’s body was found, buried under a water tank on Tanner’s property.

Under current California law, the 34-year-old Tanner will be released when he is 60.

“Ryan Tanner is going to be allowed to prey on society,” Taylor said.

Because Garrett’s family is very religious, he said to Tanner this morning, “We will have to find forgiveness for you. But none of us will ever forget it.”

He brought up Garrett’s memorial service, when so many people spoke about what a wonderful person he was.

“How many people will say great things about you?” he asked Tanner, who sat at a table between his attorneys Russ Clanton and Zack Curtis. Tanner made no statement at the sentencing.

Deputy District Attorney Whitney Timm, the prosecutor in the case, explained why it was decided to take a plea from Tanner rather than risk going to trial, a trial that may have ended in a hung jury or even an acquittal. Chief among the potential problems was key prosecution witness Christopher Champagne, an eyewitness who told wild stories when testifying during the preliminary hearing.

Champagne provided “hallucinatory testimony,” Timm said. Also, Champagne owned a weapon of the same caliber as the one used to kill Garrett. He never disclosed that fact. And months after the killing, Champagne brought in a bloody cloth and a knife and presented it as evidence.

Timm said when Tanner is released at age 60, he should be less prone to violence. Not only does the prosecution have a duty to the victims, she said, but a duty to protect the public from people like Tanner.

As for the sentence, “Mr. Tanner deserves every day of it. He deserves much more for what he did to Jason.”

Killing Garrett was Tanner’s most heinous act during the weeks he was on a paranoid rampage. In addition to admitting the manslaughter, kidnapping, arson and weapons charges involving Garrett, Tanner also pleaded guilty to: setting fire to a van owned by Natalie Pierce, making criminal threats against Champagne, assaulting his former girlfriend Vanessa Womack with a firearm and carjacking neighbors Jeff Condos and Larry Kirk and assaulting them with a firearm.

Additionally, he pleaded guilty to the kidnap a year earlier of Devin Stebbins, who said he went to work on Tanner’s property and Tanner held him captive there by using threats and violence.

After the sentencing today, Garrett’s uncle Robert Taylor, who traveled from Nevada, said Tanner “didn’t get enough. He should never be released.”

Tanner originally was charged with murder. He had pleaded not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity.

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