Nampa police shot a man during an armed barricade last year. What a judge just decided
.jpg "Devin Alapati Jones was arrested on suspicion of aiding and abetting murder in the second degree, according to a release from the Nampa Police Department.")
Over the year that he has been in jail, Richard Bigby-Garcia became a father and lost his grandmother and father.
The year has changed him for the better, his attorney, Abigail Thiry, told District Judge Davis VanderVelde on Friday. But that was not enough to persuade VanderVelde to give him probation.
Bigby-Garcia, 35, was sentenced to four years in prison, with a year on probation for good behavior or an additional year in prison for poor behavior. He pleaded guilty to aggravated assault.
What happened?
In July 2021, Ian Cole, a Nampa police officer, said he witnessed Bigby-Garcia driving his Ford F-150, speeding and yelling near downtown Nampa. In an affidavit, Cole said he activated his emergency lights, and the truck “came to an abrupt stop.”
Cole said Bigby-Garcia then pointed an AR-15-style rifle out of the window at Cole and yelled obscenities. He said Bigby-Garcia resumed driving, went to his Nampa house, crashed into a wooden fence, and went inside. Cole followed him and waited outside the house for additional officers, the affidavit said.
The affidavit said while officers were establishing a perimeter around the residence, Bigby-Garcia came out, yelling at officers and holding a handgun. He allegedly ignored commands to drop the weapon and went back inside.
Police later interviewed Bigby-Garcia’s girlfriend, who had been in the truck with him and later went with him into the house. She told police that Bigby-Garcia had used methamphetamine before the encounter and was growing paranoid as they drove around.
The affidavit said Bigby-Garcia barricaded himself in the home and did not come out as officers called to him. Police said he began breaking windows on the second floor.
That was when multiple officers began shooting, because they said they saw Bigby-Garcia carrying the gun and believed he may shoot through the broken window. Bigby-Garcia was shot, the Idaho Statesman reported. No officers were injured.
The Nampa Police Tactical Response team entered the house and took Bigby-Garcia into custody and to a hospital in Boise.
Judge weighs danger to community
Andrew Haws, the Canyon County deputy prosecutor assigned to the case, spoke on behalf of Cole, who he said suffers sleepless nights and struggles to do his job since the incident.
“The defendant’s behavior over the course of this case is extremely egregious and dangerous, and represents a significant danger to the community,” Haws said during Friday’s sentencing hearing at the Canyon County Courthouse.
He asked that the judge sentence Bigby-Garcia to four years in prison and one year indeterminate, meaning adding the year would be determined at a later date.
Thiry, a public defender, said Bigby-Garcia suffered memory loss from getting shot and did not remember the incident. But she said Bigby-Garcia has bettered himself since he was taken into custody more than a year ago.
“I have a lot of clients who spend time in custody, judge, and a lot of that is wasted time,” Thiry said. “Where they really haven’t been doing much, frankly, besides playing cards and tacking on jail phone calls. But Mr. Bigby Garcia is the exception to that. This is something where I saw a marked difference in Richard.”
Bigby-Garcia suffered PTSD from the incident and has mental health issues, Thiry said. While in jail, Bigby-Garcia’s counselor asked him to try to talk about only positive things, and the professional noted that he struggled to come up with anything.
“How sad is it to think that someone is seriously challenged to only talk about positive things,” Thiry said. “What had been going on in his brain in his life, that it was so hard for him to find the positive?”
Thiry asked the judge to give Bigby-Garcia probation, to give him a chance to be a father to his new child, and to continue to improve his mental health.
Bigby-Garcia apologized to the judge for his actions.
”I’m sorry sir,” he said.
VanderVelde accepted his apology.
“I also have to weigh that with what occurred here with violence and how dangerous it was to our community,” VanderVeld said. “And quite frankly, how thankful I am that no one was killed, including yourself.”
