An irate man who shot a Gresham tattoo artist in the back — injuring him so seriously that he probably will never walk again — was sentenced Thursday to 20 years in prison.

Russell Alan Clemo, 29, was upset that hobbyist tattoo artist, Jordan Peck, 24, wouldn’t finish the tattoo he’d begun on Clemo’s neck. The artist believed Clemo was bleeding too much to continue the tattoo because of the drugs Clemo had consumed earlier.

Clemo pulled out a revolver and fired six times. One of the bullets struck Peck in the spine, paralyzing him from the waist down. Peck now uses a wheelchair.

Clemo and Peck met through a mutual friend and had known each other for a few days when last Aug. 30 Clemo went over to Peck’s Gresham apartment in the Rockwood neighborhood.

The two used drugs — either heroin or methamphetamines. By the next day, Peck had started to give Clemo a large tattoo of a king’s cross, investigators say.

Peck hadn’t finished the outline of the tattoo when he stopped and told Clemo he couldn’t go any further. That spurred Clemo, who’d been acting erratically, to pull out the gun and open fire, investigators say.

Clemo left, but didn’t call police or tell anyone about the incident. When police tracked him down a few days later, he also didn’t tell them the story of self-defense that he presented at trial earlier this month in Multnomah County Circuit Court.

According to Clemo’s defense: Peck wouldn’t finish the tattoo. For reasons that are unclear, Peck pointed a gun at Clemo. Clemo knocked the gun from his hand and picked it up. Peck picked up a knife. Clemo turned his head and fired randomly, emptying the revolver.

Clemo claimed he didn’t use drugs before the encounter.

Jurors didn’t believe Clemo’s story, finding him guilty of attempted murder, first-degree assault, unlawful use of a weapon and being a felon in possession of a firearm.

At Clemo’s sentencing hearing, he cried, briefly glanced at Peck, then apologized.

“I want you to know this wasn’t some intentional act of cruelty,” Clemo said. “I’m truly sorry that this happened as a result of my actions.”

Peck, who sat silently through the hearing and had told the prosecutor he didn’t wish to speak, decided to say something: “I forgive you, Russell.”

The mother of Peck’s 4-year-old daughter told the judge that Clemo changed her child’s life forever. She said Peck will never be able to chase his daughter around the playground again or one day walk her down the aisle.

Prosecutor Chris Ramras asked the judge to sentence Clemo to 23 years in prison. Defense attorney Scott Raivio argued for 7½ years, the minimum that Oregon law allows.

Judge Jerry Hodson said he was sentencing Clemo to 20 years in part because he found that Clemo acted with deliberate cruelty, caused permanent injury and inflicted harm greater than typical.

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