PORT ANGELES — A 26-year-old man who beat his girlfriend at a Sequim motel — and she later died of those injuries — pleaded guilty Monday to second-degree murder.
Looking frail and dressed in an orange Clallam County jail jumpsuit, Nathan Eugene Hipsher rarely spoke in the courtroom appearance that concluded with his being sentenced to 29 years in prison by Clallam County Superior Court Judge Ken Williams.
The sentence was the maximum allowed under the sentencing guidelines.
By the admission of Hipsher’s own lawyer, the maximum sentence may not make much difference because Hipsher is suffering from an acute and advanced form of cancer that will take his life.
“It’s a matter of a short time,” said Hipsher’s lawyer, Terry Mulligan.