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Toddler's killer returns to prison Thursday Sep 23, 1999 at 2:00 AM Dec 17, 2010 at 12:03 AM CHRIS BRISTOL Other Measure 11 cases — — Terry Carruthers was not the only — defendant who got a lighter-than-mandatory sentence from Judge Loren — Sawyer, who rejected Measure 11 as unconstitutional at least eight times — before he retired in 1997. — Here are the cases still pending: — — Daniel Robert Gee of Medford -- — Convicted of first-degree robbery in 1996, Gee was sentenced to 51 — months in prison instead of the mandatory 90 months. The Oregon — Court of Appeals reversed Sawyer, and Gee is scheduled for — resentencing Friday. — — — Samuel Arthur — Silverman of Ashland -- Convicted of two counts of first-degree — sexual abuse in 1997, he was sentenced to 120 days in jail and 10 — years probation instead of the mandatory minimum of 75 months in — prison. The Court of Appeals reversed the sentence in April and — sent the case back to Jackson County for — resentencing. No date has been set. — — — Russell Melillo of Huntington Beach, — Calif. -- Convicted of first-degree robbery in 1996, he was — sentenced to 38 months in prison instead of the mandatory 90 months. — The Court of Appeals reversed in May, but Melillo appealed to the — Supreme Court. — — — Jesus Mercado-Vasquez of Medford -- — Convicted of two counts of second-degree rape in 1997, — Mercado-Vasquez was sentenced to 16 months in prison instead of the — mandatory minimum of 75 months. The case remains pending before the — Court of Appeals. — — — Measure 11 resentencing costs Carruthers — — Free on borrowed time since February, a Medford home day-care worker was sent back to prison Wednesday to serve out his mandatory sentence for smothering a 2 1/2-year-old boy on a waterbed. Terry Lee Carruthers, 48, was immediately taken into custody at the end of the proceeding and escorted to jail. He has 49 out of 75 months left to go and can't be released from prison for any reason, not even terminal illness, until October 2003. We feel like we won a little battle today, Ron Dingler, the maternal grandfather of victim Tre Chase, said moments after court adjourned. Still, it's not enough. I don't think we will ever get justice until we get Tre back, and that's never going to happen. The case against Carruthers, whose use of a self-described holding technique to silence fussy children cost Tre his life, was one of several Oregon tragedies that led lawmakers this year to pass legislation aimed at beefing up inspections of thousands of childcare homes throughout the state. It was also one of at least eight cases in which a now-retired Jackson County judge rejected the state's mandatory-minimum Measure 11 sentencing law -- a law the Supreme Court before and since has upheld as constitutional. Although Carruthers never testified at his 1996 trial, on tape he recalled that Tre struggled for some 20 minutes, then was quiet. A medical expert testified the child died of suffocation and asphyxiation from being pressed face down on the bed at a home daycare operated by Carruthers and his wife. The defense argued the death was an accident. In a TV interview two weeks ago, Carruthers continued to deny responsibility. Judge Loren Sawyer convicted Carruthers of second-degree manslaughter, but sentenced him to three years in prison instead of the mandatory 75 months under Measure 11, which the judge believed was unconstitutional. Carruthers was released after serving 26 months. The state appealed the sentence. Carruthers appealed his conviction. He lost. The state won. In court Wednesday, as supporters of the Chase family packed one side of the courtroom and members of Carruthers family sat in the first row on the other side, Dingler accused Carruthers of traumatizing untold numbers of day-care children with his technique. You need to suffer for what you did to us, he said to Carruthers, because to me you're just a murderer, no matter how you look at it, Terry. As Dingler spoke, Carruthers' daughter began sobbing loudly and left the courtroom. She came back but never stopped crying. All the while, Carruthers stared straight ahead. In a brief statement to the court, he denied a lack of remorse. I am remorseful, he said. I think about Tre about 10,000 times a day. A lawyer for Carruthers asked Judge Ray White to postpone the proceeding pending appeal, arguing that Carruthers has lingering medical problems from disease of the pancreas. White declined and issued the now-standard sentence, 75 months, with credit for time served. Outside the courthouse, the boy's parents, Eric and Lisa Chase, said they're glad the case is finally over. It's nice for now, Lisa Chase said, her eyes red from crying. But he'll be out in a few years, and my son ... The couple have two children, 7-year-old Tessa, a girl, and Terran, who is now about the same age as Tre was when he died -- 2. After Tre died, Eric Chase got a job doing maintenance work full-time at Hillcrest Cemetery. Coincidentally, that's where his son is buried. It's nice, actually, he said. I go over to his spot, sometimes, on breaks. It's pretty quiet there.