PORTLAND, Ore. (CN) — Jeremy Christian, convicted of hate crimes and the murders of two men on a Oregon commuter train, was sentenced to life in prison following a hearing punctuated by his outbursts, including yelling “I should have killed you, bitch!” at a black woman he assaulted.
Finding, as the jury did, that Christian committed his crimes based on “unreasonable racial and religious biases,” Judge Cheryl A. Albrecht on Wednesday sentenced Christian to two terms of life in prison without possibility of parole. Christian, now 38, could have gotten a sentence that would have allowed for his release at age 70.
In a statement just before the judge read his sentence, Christian told Micah Fletcher, who survived being stabbed in the throat, that Fletcher should apologize to the families of the two men Christian killed in the 2017 stabbing attack.
Christian said that although he sees himself as morally responsible for the deaths of Ricky Best and Taliesin Namkai-Meche, he wouldn’t have killed them if Fletcher hadn’t tried to stop him from yelling a hateful diatribe at two young black girls on the train that day.
“They involved themselves in the situation, and sadly, they died,” Christian said Wednesday over videoconference from a room in the Multnomah County Jail. “I do regret that two people died, but I do not regret my actions that led to their deaths.”
Christian heard most of Tuesday’s victim impact statements remotely, over videoconference from a room in the Multnomah County Jail, after Multnomah County Circuit Judge Cheryl A. Albrecht said he had forfeited his right to be present in the courtroom by yelling at Demetria Hester. Christian was convicted of menacing Hester on the night before he murdered two men and stabbed a third.
At the start of Memorial Day weekend in 2017, Jeremy Christian, then 35, sat aboard a light-rail train, drinking from the spigot of a plastic bladder of boxed sangria as he ranted about Jews and Muslims, beheadings and Saudi Arabia, and Vikings and circumcision. Christian directed his vitriol at two black teenage girls, one of whom was wearing a hijab.
Passengers yelled back at him. One man, Shawn Forde, stood between Christian and the girls, in an attempt to block them from Christian’s view. Fletcher, then 21, joined Forde, telling Christian to “shut up and leave the girls alone.” Namkai-Meche, who was 23, approached Christian, holding out his cellphone.
“You’re about to be an internet sensation,” Namkai-Meche told him.
Christian slapped the phone out of Namkai-Meche’s hand before he could press record.
“Do something, bitch!” Christian yelled. He shoved Fletcher, who pushed him back.
Christian grabbed a folding knife out of his pocket as he shoved Namkai-Meche with his other hand. The train stopped and the doors opened as the men stood face-to-face. Best, 53, stood behind Namkai-Meche.
None of them could see the knife Christian held down at his side. He opened the blade with a flick of his wrist when Fletcher shoved him again.
“Go on and get,” Fletcher yelled.
Over the next 12 seconds, Christian sliced the necks of three men. Best and Namkai-Meche fell to the floor. Fletcher fled, while Christian stabbed the other two men again and again.
Afterward, there was chaos. One witness mistook the spray of blood for a sudden rain. Some tried to help the men who were stabbed, while others fled, stepping over their bodies.
Best died on the train. Namkai-Meche was transported to the hospital where he was pronounced dead. Fletcher survived, a prominent scar running from below his ear nearly to his collarbone.
This past February, a jury found Christian guilty of all 12 charges against him, including first-degree murder, assault and menacing. Hester says the killings could have been prevented if police had listened to her: Christian menaced her with a knife on that same train, 17 hours before he stabbed three men.
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