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Tacoma man gets 9 years, $2M in restitution for ink stick thefts
It seemed fitting that Terry Gaines’ last act in Pierce County Superior Court on Friday was to wipe ink from his fingertips.
Judge Kathryn Nelson had just sentenced Gaines to prison for selling on eBay stolen ink sticks with a retail value of nearly $2 million. The 60-year-old man was required to affix his fingerprints to the judgment and sentence using an inkpad at the defense table.
Gaines then used a tissue to clean the black smears from his fingers as Nelson finished up the paperwork to complete his sentence: nine years in prison and $1.8 million in restitution to the Xerox Corp.
A jury convicted the Tacoma man last month of eight counts of money laundering and 34 counts of trafficking in stolen property in what is thought to be among the biggest cases of theft in the history of the Xerox Corp.
Deputy prosecutor Rosie Martinelli alleged Gaines had a source inside a Xerox plant in Oregon who fed him stolen ink sticks that he then sold online at highly discounted prices.
Defense attorney James Schoenberger argued that his client didn’t know the ink sticks were stolen when he peddled them on eBay.
The jury sided with Martinelli, who on Friday asked for a 10-year sentence for Gaines. The deputy prosecutor said the defendant acted out of “pure greed and selfishness” in perpetrating a criminal enterprise that spanned at least seven years.
Gaines, she added, had taken no responsibility for his actions.“He blamed everyone else,” Martinelli said.
Schoenberger stuck to the story that his guy didn’t know what he was doing was wrong until detectives arrested him in early 2010.
Gaines, the defense attorney said, “might have been stupid” by accepting ink sticks from third parties without tracking their origin, but he didn’t intentionally commit a crime.
Schoenberger asked that his client, who has health trouble and came to court in a wheelchair, be declared a first-time offender and get little or no time in custody.
“There’s nothing to be gained here from sending Terry Gaines to prison,” the defense attorney said. “Give this man a chance to hold his family together.”
Gaines then got a chance to address the judge.“I screwed up,” he said. “I apologize for what I did. I didn’t mean to break the law. I didn’t think I was.”
Gaines, who collects veterans benefits and has struggled with unemployment, went on to say he used his ink-selling business to support himself and his family.“I did it not out of greed,” he said. “I did it to take care of my family.”
Prosecutors pointed out in court records that Gaines also took vacations to the tropics, attended Seattle Seahawks games and bought an Infiniti M35X during the time he was selling stolen ink.
In the end, Nelson knocked a year off Martinelli’s recommendation.She offered no comment, simply writing “108 months” on the sentencing paperwork.
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