Updated: Sequim man sentenced for threatening children, eluding law enforcement

Published 11:30 am Tuesday, November 25, 2025

Updated with new sentencing information.

After a jury agreed in September that 61-year-old John Barcellos was guilty of threatening to kill four children and eluding law enforcement in a Sequim church parking lot, he was sentenced on Nov. 18 in Clallam County Superior Court to 77 months in prison with time served.

However, Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Matthew Roberson wrote in an email response that the Washington Sentencing Reform Act “generally requires all felony sentences to be served concurrently absent rare circumstances; therefore, (Barcellos) will serve 55 months with credit for time served.”

Barcellos will now serve less than two-and-a-half more years in prison.

Judge Brent Basden imposed the sentence to include 55 months for four counts of harassment – threats to kill, and 22 months for attempting to elude law enforcement. He was also found indigent.

Roberson and victims’ families asked for the maximum 60-month penalty.

On Sept. 16, 2023, Clallam County Sheriff’s Office reported that Barcellos made threats with a hatchet (revealed to be fake) and attempted with his car to hit four children playing in the Sequim Seventh-day Adventist Church parking lot. Three hid on a stairwell and another in the bushes. Barcellos later drove off, hit a deputy’s vehicle, hit the Woodcock Road roundabout and crashed, deputies report.

While en route to be booked, Barcellos also allegedly threatened to kill a deputy.

Barcellos’ trial lasted five days and included testimony from him and the children. The jury found Barcellos guilty of the five previously mentioned counts and acquitted him of three charges of assault in the second degree, a charge of harassment – threats to kill, and determined that he did not use his vehicle as a deadly weapon.

Mothers of the two sets of siblings spoke during sentencing about their children’s constant nightmares and fears, innocence lost, and trauma.

“Two years later and I’m still trying to heal from this night,” one mother read on behalf of her younger child.

“On the phone, I could hear (Barcellos) screaming at them he was going to kill them and bash their heads in,” she said.

For her older child, she read his statement that Barcellos took their innocence away.

“No one should have to feel the way we feel,” the mother read on her child’s behalf.

The mother later said they live with the lasting effects of the trauma and that they’re not the same family since that night.

The second mother was critical of the length of time it took for the case to go to trial and the case’s impact.

“A piece of their innocence was stolen that night,” she said.

Her family had gone to that church parking lot since her children were toddlers to play, go sledding, and learn to ride their bikes.

“Our family has not been back to that parking lot,” she said. “Nothing seems carefree anymore.”

Alternative sentencing

Barcellos was eligible for a Mental Health Sentencing Alternative where he would be released to receive a personalized mental health treatment and be supervised by the Department of Corrections.

Defense Attorney John Hayden said during sentencing that if Barcellos just goes to prison and is released he’d be unchecked, whereas the alternative sentence would provide a defined program.

“The old way of, ‘he might be crazy, lock em’ up’, doesn’t work,” he said.

Hayden said the “modern day mental health tragedy” the children experienced from Barcellos was horrible, but the situation wasn’t as black-and-white as it appeared as the jury didn’t find Barcellos’ vehicle to be used as a deadly weapon.

He said under the alternative sentence, Barcellos could be brought back and re-sentenced if treatment is refused, whereas he could walk out of prison with no treatment plan.

However, Basden said during Barcellos’ sentencing that he had significant concerns about the alternative sentence’s plan and that Barcellos wouldn’t use the services provided to him.

“I’m not at all convinced he would try to do (a treatment plan),” Basden said.

“If the court imposed that, it’d be months long chasing our tail to get him to comply.

“The plan is simply insufficient. I don’t think it would benefit the community to have him be back out on the street.”

Roberson said after many evaluations since Sept. 16, 2023, doctors haven’t agreed on what Barcellos suffers from, with some diagnoses including major depressive disorder, unspecified mood disorder, or schizoaffective disorder.

Barcellos has an offender score of 9 for his history of criminal arrests, including assault in the second degree with a deadly weapon, unlawful possession of a firearm in the first degree, bail jumping, and burglary in the second degree.

“When looking at (the Sept. 16, 2023 incidents), I don’t think this is a case where his ability to understand right or wrong was significantly impaired,” Roberson said.

“Mr. Barcellos testified at trial. In his testimony, he believed the four boys were bothering him and a threat to the church. His actions were to have them leave.”

Roberson said Barcellos’ willingness to participate in treatment now after refusing it was because he faced prison time.

“In his past, he has a tendency to disobey the state’ order; he has a history of choosing ‘or else,’” he said.

As to the severity of the threats, Robertson said displaying the toy axe made it different than just uttering a threat.

“The children did not know Barcellos,” he said. “The three trapped on the stairwell and one in the bushes, they thought he had an axe.”

Basden agreed with this sentiment before sentencing saying that he believed Barcellos knew what he was doing, and the children thought that it was an axe.

Barcellos did not address the court at sentencing.

Basden complimented the children to their mothers and told them they are “some of the brightest America has to offer” and he found them impressive and articulate, and he hopes they can work through trauma through faith, counseling, and/or family.