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Robert Fleeks, Jr., 19 at the time of the early morning confrontation Dec. 3, 2018 with Marlin George, Jr., 37, was convicted at trial in March of second-degree murder. George was a father of three who had deep connections to both the Suquamish and Port Gamble S’Klallam tribes.
Loved ones of George had asked Judge Mary Roberts to impose the longest sentence possible and one said, despite a general consensus that the fight between the two started when George took a crack rock without paying for it, that they believed Fleeks in fact had sought to rob George.
Fleeks’ attorneys and loved ones asserted he had acted in self-defense after George initiated the conflict a claim the jury and the judge rejected and asked Roberts for leniency, saying Fleeks made a mistake after a childhood of violence and trauma but was redeemable.