Bloglander

You might remember Matthew Baumrucker, the 31-year-old who pleaded guilty to a felony possession of a firearm charge earlier this year. He's the man who captured the heart of the former Spokane County deputy prosecutor Marriya Wright in 2013, along with the attention of the national media. 

Baumrucker was sentenced to 92 months in federal prison yesterday and has elected to serve that time at a facility in Florida.

As for Wright, she pleaded guilty last year to second-degree rendering criminal assistance after she gave Baumrucker a ride to a motel in Spokane Valley when he was being pursued by police for assault in March of 2013. She is no longer a Spokane County prosecutor, though she is still able to practice law in Washington. Police eventually arrested Baumrucker at the motel, where officers found a firearm on the air conditioning unit outside the window. 

According to a previous Inlander story, Baumrucker's first encounter with Wright was in 2010 when she prosecuted him for violating a protection order. Later that year, he sent her a letter without response. In 2013, though, he continued writing to her from jail, appealing to her Christian sensitivities.

When he was released later that year, the relationship blossomed. Witnesses say the two met in person several times, including at least one time when they made out in her car. They also texted almost daily — detectives counted 1,280 texts over a period of a few months — wishing sweet dreams at night and sharing intimate secrets. 

Even after Baumrucker was arrested from that Spokane Valley motel in March 2012, the relationship continued. Wright visited him at least 10 times, according to Spokane County Jail records. The letters continued as well, one of them contained a picture of her in a bikini at a body building competition. 

An excerpt from one of Wright's letters reads: "Sometimes when I talk to you or read your letters, I would swear that we must have been best friends/soulmates/whatever you want to call it, and I'm sure great lovers too in a past life or something. I never really believed in that kind of thing before, but something about you is always so familiar."