BENTON COUNTY, Wash. – Superior Court Judge Jacqueline Stam sentenced a Benton County man to eight years in prison on Friday for choking his grandson in July 2024, according to the Benton County Prosecutor’s Office.
James Christopher Forney, 47, will also spend 18 months in community custody on charges of second-degree assault of a child, fourth-degree assault and third-degree malicious mischief.
On July 10, 2024, a woman reported to law enforcement that Forney hard choked her son, who is his grandson, to the point of vomiting. Forney, who was intoxicated, had also assaulted the woman before she called 911.
A jury found Forney guilty in January after a week-long trial.
Forney’s sentence is six months less than the maximum sentence that the prosecuting attorney asked the court to impose. His attorney asked the court for a minimum sentence of 77 months, or just under six and a half years.
