Washington’s State Supreme Court will be in Montesano on Feb. 21 and Feb. 22, with an opportunity for interaction with the justices. During oral arguments, the justices will address a Grays Harbor County case.

First, the justices will be on hand at the Montesano High School commons on Wednesday, Feb. 21, from 5:45 p.m.-6:45 p.m. There, they will participate in a community forum.

The next day, the justices will hear oral arguments for State of Washington v. Bassett at the Grays Harbor County courthouse in Montesano.

Brian Bassett is a convicted triple-murderer. In 2017, an appeals court decision said he should be resentenced.

Bassett, now in his late 30s, was convicted in 1996 of killing his parents and 5-year-old brother in their McCleary home. He was 16 at the time of the killings. He was tried as an adult and convicted of three counts of aggravated first degree murder, which can carry the death penalty. But juveniles in Washington are not subject to capital punishment and then Superior Court Judge Gordon Godfrey sentenced Bassett to life without the possibility of parole, mandatory at the time.

Bassett’s case had already been remanded for sentencing once before in 2015. That time, the Appeals Court said the lower court needed to consider factors such as a difficult upbringing and progress he had made in rehabilitation. Grays Harbor Superior Court Judge David Edwards heard the case and did not find that a lighter sentence was warranted, imposing three, consecutive life without parole sentences.

Following the appeals court decision that Bassett should be resentenced, Grays Harbor County Prosecuting Attorney Katie Svoboda asked the Supreme Court to review the decision.

Bassett had been kicked out of his family’s home in 1995, returning days later to shoot his parents, Michael and Wendy Bassett, while his friend Nicholaus McDonald waited outside. McDonald also shot Michael Bassett. Brian Bassett’s 5-year-old brother was a witness and either Bassett or McDonald drowned the boy in a bathtub.

The Bassetts were well known in the East County area and the killings shocked the small community.

The two teens were captured in Oregon the day after the killings, when McDonald, who was 17, turned himself into police while Bassett slept.

The two were convicted of three counts of first degree aggravated murder.