SEATTLE — A man who made his girlfriend’s life an “extended period of hell on Earth” while living on the Tulalip Indian Reservation was sentenced this week to nearly six years in a federal prison.
Joshua Carl Vanderwel, 26, pleaded guilty to assault and felony harassment for abuse and threats against his girlfriend and one of their two children.
He originally was charged in Tulalip Tribal Court in September 2014 and charged federally in U.S. District Court in Seattle in December 2014.
U.S. District Judge Robert Lasnik said it was clear Vanderwel had made his girlfriend’s life hellish with repeated assaults and threats to push her off a cliff or slash her throat. He also kept her captive in the home they shared.
The violence included attempted strangulation, striking her with a metal pipe and throwing items at her, including knives and lamps. He also threatened to burn down the home with small children inside.
Lasnik urged the defendant to seek help for addiction to methamphetamine.
The case was prosecuted as part of a pilot project authorized by the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act. The Tulalip Tribes are among the first in the nation to exercise criminal jurisdiction over certain domestic violence crimes, regardless of whether the defendant is Indian.
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