By Mark Briant
mbriant@soundpublishing.com

PORT ORCHARD — A Superior Court judge delayed a sentencing decision Monday on whether murder/rape suspect Gabriel Gaeta could have the minimum sentencing range increased following a conviction.

After listening to oral arguments from both sides, Judge Jennifer A. Forbes said she would consider additional precedents in case law before making her ruling. No additional court dates are scheduled prior to the start of the trial, scheduled for sometime in October at the earliest, and the earliest she could make a decision would be after Sept. 19.

Gaeta, who appeared in court Monday morning with a freshly-shaven head, sat and stared silently during the 45-minute hearing, and never spoke.

Gaeta has been charged with first degree aggravated murder in the rape and murder of a 6-year-old neighbor girl in 2014. Gaeta was just four months shy of his 18th birthday at the time of the murder, but will be tried as an adult.

Defense attorney Roger Hunko argued that if the minimum sentencing range were to be increased following a conviction, it would have to be done by a jury, not a judge. The current sentencing range is 25 years to life; prosecutors argued that Forbes, as the presiding judge, held the statutory authority to impose the stiffer penalty of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

Gaeta allegedly raped and murdered Jenise Wright, 6, in the woods in East Bremerton. Wright’s body was discovered in a wooded area near Steele Creek On August 7, 2014, four days after her parents reported her missing.