The conviction of a man who stabbed his father highlights a complicated intersection between the law and mental health

As Tyler Anderson was sentenced Monday for stabbing his father, Spokane County Superior Court Judge Raymond Clary took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes in apparent frustration.

“What if they can’t find him a place to stay? Where will he be, on the street?” Clary asked the lawyers, who nodded.

Anderson, 38, stabbed his father four times in the middle of the night in June of this year at their South Hill home. On Monday he was handed a 24-month sentence in community custody after pleading guilty to assault. However, there was confusion in the courtroom as some could not understand why Anderson had nowhere to go after his sentence.

Spokane County Assistant Prosecutor Dara Schroeter said Anderson had been diagnosed with a serious mental illness and was eligible for an alternative mental health sentence that would allow him to avoid prison time, but they had not found inpatient housing, in which he could receive treatment in addition to the substance. He had to seek treatment because of a previous sexual offense nine years ago, when he met an underage girl in an online chat room.

Even if they could, the admission process would take weeks or months, said his defense attorney Dawson Osborn.

“Nobody in this courtroom wants him on the street. I have no answer as to why his offense nine years ago would prevent him from getting an apartment,” Osborn said. “I’ve seen situations where people have had two rape (convictions) without any problems.”

Anderson could go home, his sister Jill Reeves said, but he couldn’t stay forever in the place where he stabbed his father.

“Tyler has a story. He urgently needs psychiatric treatment…He is ready for a chance, wants help, and is willing to participate in a path forward. I believe he can do it. He made big mistakes but was at a disadvantage most of his life,” she said. “The reality is that if he is released today, and he wants to be, he will return to the environment that brought him here. He will return to my parents’ house. And my parents won’t let their son go out on the streets.”

Anderson’s father was taken to Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center after being stabbed in the hip, chest and left leg, according to court records. Medical staff told police he suffered a partial lung collapse.

Frontier Behavioral Health is focused on giving Anderson the treatment he needs, Schroeter said. Normally, inmates with mental health issues would be released directly to the Frontier facility, but not this time. Anderson needs certain recommendations to get into a facility and must attend interviews with treatment experts for other locations. However, Schroeter added that Anderson could only receive the referral after his conviction, even though it had been denied due to his previous offense, so Clary would at best sentence him to a life on the streets.

Clary could have kept Anderson in prison while he waited for a referral and a bed at a place that accepts sex offenders, but all parties agreed that it was clear that Anderson was “not doing well in prison,” even while he was took the medication prescribed to him.

“Tyler spent another week in jail because he believed he had a housing alternative,” Reeves said. “Here we are, a week later, without a step forward.”

Anderson was also supposed to talk to peers who could connect him to resources outside of prison, but “they haven’t met with him,” Osborn told Clary.

“It would be an easy solution if we could figure out why he can’t get an inpatient bed. They told us why, but it doesn’t make sense to me,” he said.

Clary kept getting up from his seat to get more case law and documents while he thought about what to do.

“I have no home to send him to,” he said with a sigh.

Anderson was given the opportunity to speak, and although he expressed the need for treatment and the desire for help, he also did not know what to do and say.

His sister also expressed her frustration with the process itself; She had visited other treatment centers, she said, but it was time for the family to worry.

“We definitely don’t want him on the streets,” Reeves said. “The accountability aspect is important…We want housing where we don’t have to wait three months for someone to help us.”

At the end of Monday’s sentencing, Clary ultimately ruled that Anderson must report to his assigned community guardian once a day, in person or by telephone, on his terms and conditions. He must also stay away from drugs and firearms and will temporarily stay with his parents until he can find another apartment.

“I’ve been put in a difficult position… When I hold him, my experience – and what I hear – is that he’s going through a decomposition from being locked up, even though he’s on medication,” Clary said. “That won’t solve our problem. Treatment will solve our problem.”