King County Superior Court Judge Catherine Shaffer began today’s sentencing of Steven Bauder and Marcus Dennis by acknowledging all the letters she had received asking that the murder defendants spend the rest of their lives in prison. “It’s clear that a lot of people don’t understand what we’re doing today,” the judge said, explaining that the pair’s plea bargains forbade her from accommodating. With Bauder’s own blessing,however,she gave the maximum possible to the men she said “bathed in evil.”Bauder and Dennis (pictured at top, with Bauder on the left), former members of downtown’s subculture of Juggalos and street kids, killed a troubled young man named Noel Lopez in April 2008. As the judge and many others there today pointed out, the murder was exceptionally brutal–lasting for hours and using a variety of heavy construction tools to reduce Lopez to a mass of blood and broken bones. As we noted in our cover story on the murder last November, some members of the street community thought Lopez had it coming because of his romantic yearnings for an underage girl. Dennis, addressing the judge, revealed the depth of that bloodlust. “I’ve been getting letters from people all over the United States who think what I’ve done is cool,” he said. The skinny, 23-year-old–who went by “Smurf” on the street–said he himself disagreed, and was “horribly sorry” for what he had done. “I’ve tried to commit suicide 14 times over this,” he said. Maybe so, but it was Bauder, a 25-year-old Army vet with the street name of “13,” who seemed more anguished in court. He buried his head in his hands, and when it came time to speak, said in a low, creaky voice: “I fucked up. I never should have laid hands on Noel.” He said he has been so distraught that he can’t sleep without pills. And then he said, “I request the maximum sentence be imposed.” Shaffer didn’t hesitate. She had heard not only from the defendants but a stream of Lopez’s siblings and parents. Many sobbed as they told of their love for the deceased, a once promising art student who descended into mental illness and a world he didn’t understand. Indeed, mental illness affected both defendants as well, Shaffer conceded. And Dennis had a “horrific childhood,” she said. (See his mom’s denial of such in yesterday’s DW.) But she said neither of those points were excuses.She sentenced both Dennis and Bauder to 26 years and eight months in prison–the top of the legally allowable sentencing range and 20 months more than the prosecutor requested.