PORTLAND, Ore. (KATU/CNN) – A man in Oregon has pleaded guilty to multiple charges for setting another man on fire at a Denny’s last year.
Deshaun James Swanger is expected to be sentenced to at least a decade behind bars.
His victim, Scott Transtrom, is pleased that Swanger is going to prison, but thinks he should have gotten a tougher sentence. He is concerned that Swanger will do something like this to someone else in the future.
Ranstrom said, “The idea that this guy, in my humble opinion, is not going to be punished severely enough for what he did it’s not just to me. I think of other people. I think of him doing this to somebody else and it irritates the crap out of me.”
For many, sentencing is closure, but not for Scott Ranstrom. He said, “Can you imagine your wife getting gasoline and lit on fire? How would you feel? Some little kid? That’s the kind of guy this is!”
His attacker, Deshaun Swanger pleaded guilty to several charges, including attempted aggravated murder, a Measure 11 crime that brings a 10-year minimum sentence in Oregon.
But with the plea, Swanger could be out in 10 years.
“If I live to 80 or 90, I will still have the problem,” Ranstrom said. “He won’t. He will be out living his life again. 24, he’ll be young.” And healthy, Ranstrom guesses, of which he feels robbed of.
“The hardest thing I have had to deal with is to learn to do everything over again,” Ranstrom explained. “Learn to swallow, learn to talk, walk.” Things we take for granted. “It was a challenge, trust me. I am getting stronger every day, but I am never going to be able to get my hands to work the way they used to.”
Swanger’s sentencing marks almost one year to the day of the attack.
Ranstrom was in a coma for two months. He’s now on dialysis and is healing from severe burns to his hands, head and much of his body. “But it’s thinner, you can see how my veins pop up a little more,” he said.
But Ranstrom said things seem to be turning around. He can now drive. He can type on a computer, lift a glass of water. And now, play his favorite card game. “It’s just like I got my hands! I can’t use them. I can use them a little. I can hold cards, I can play a little poker once in a while.”
He credits his positive attitude. “But I force myself to do things and I try to stay in a good mood about everything, and I think I do a pretty good job of it.”
Ranstrom plans to attend Swanger’s sentencing hearing Tuesday. He said, “I don’t hate the guy, I just don’t think there is a way to cure him. I really don’t.”
Ranstrom said he will speak at the sentencing hearing if he is given the chance.
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