Finley man resentenced to life in prison for sex crimes

A Finley man who would force himself on women he met at Tri-City bars has been ordered to keep serving a life sentence in prison.

Taylor Ross Landrum, 32, had been awaiting resentencing since the state Court of Appeals in 2012 dismissed three counts of solicitation to commit perjury.

After 20 hearings over 20 months with seven different attorneys, Landrum was told recently he must do a mandatory minimum term of 14 years and two months.

Landrum has been locked up since October 2008, which means he has served almost half of his time.

However, the sex crimes carry a maximum sentence of life so his ultimate release will be determined by the state Indeterminate Sentence Review Board once he has done the minimum term.

Landrum was housed at Coyote Ridge Corrections Center in Connell this whole time, and driven to Benton County Superior Court in Kennewick for hearings.

A jury convicted Landrum in October 2009 of second-degree rape, attempted indecent liberties and four counts of solicitation to commit perjury.

That came one year after he sexually assaulted a woman he met at a Richland bar.

Landrum — who has maintained his innocence on all of the charges — claims it was consensual sex. The jury, though, sided with the evidence and the testimony that showed when the woman refused to have sex with Landrum after kissing him in his truck, he grabbed her by the throat and raped her.

The attempted indecent liberties stems from a 2006 incident in which Landrum met another woman at a Kennewick bar and offered to take her home to Finley since he lived there too.

He instead drove to an isolated road near the Benton County fairgrounds, grabbed the woman and tried to kiss her. She got him to stop and drive her home, then jumped out of the car when he got close to her house.

While awaiting trial, Landrum was accused of trying to get two fellow Benton County jail inmates to help him by lying or intimidating the victim and witnesses.

Landrum has been implicated in several other sex offenses and attempted sex offenses, including a child sex crime, court documents said. He also was a suspect in a rape in September 2006, during the Pendleton Round-Up.

At the time of his original sentencing in 2010, attorney Scott Johnson called Landrum a sexual predator and serial rapist, and said he is dangerous because he “has no concept, no understanding that what he’s done is wrong.”

Johnson had been the deputy prosecutor who tried the case. He switched to private practice as a defense lawyer shortly after Landrum was convicted, but resumed his role as prosecutor for the original sentencing.

Chief Criminal Deputy Prosecutor Terry Bloor took over the case when Landrum filed his appeal.

Judge Cameron Mitchell in 2010 gave Landrum a nearly 36-year minimum sentence — 23 years and four months on the rape and 13 years and four months on the attempted indecent liberties. The prison terms were to run consecutively.

But then the Court of Appeals ruled that the prison terms for each charge should be done at the same time, and sent his case back to Superior Court for resentencing. The appeals court also dismissed three counts of solicitation to commit perjury because they are considered one crime, which reduced Landrum’s standard sentencing range.

This time around, defense attorney Peyman Younesi tried to get a mandatory minimum term of 12 years and two months for his client.

Judge Mitchell felt it more appropriate to order a sentence two years above that request.

This story was originally published September 22, 2015 at 5:22 PM with the headline "Finley man resentenced to life in prison for sex crimes."