A Washington state resident is set to serve over 20 years in prison for killing a father of two who was trying to address illegal dumping in his community involving a U-Haul truck.

Andrew Baim, aged 39, received a sentence of 24 years and seven months for the murder of 53-year-old Nick Valison in the Seattle suburb of Ravensdale. This information was confirmed by the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office. In September, a jury found Baim guilty of second-degree murder, arson, and two counts of possessing a stolen vehicle.

On September 21, 2023, in the vicinity of 329th Place Southeast and 327th Way Southeast, Baim struck Valison with a pickup truck. During the sentencing, Valison’s wife, Tanie, who had been married to him for nearly 30 years, expressed her anger and grief.

“For the rest of his miserable life, he will be labeled a murderer because that’s what he is,” she declared, according to a report from ABC affiliate KOMO. “I hope it haunts him for the rest of his days. My daughters and I were given a life sentence of pain, trauma, and loss without Nick. We did nothing wrong and neither did he, but our lives are forever altered because of a career criminal.”

As detailed in a criminal complaint accessed by NBC affiliate KING, Valison, along with his neighbors, had been worried about illegal dumping in their area. Valison, while walking his dog, approached an abandoned U-Haul, later identified as stolen. Following a confrontation, Baim fatally struck Valison with a Dodge Ram pickup truck.

Neighbors said they saw the pickup driving recklessly in the area around the time of the murder. Deputies were familiar with Baim because of his litany of prior arrests. A few hours after the slaying, deputies responded to a vehicle fire, which was later confirmed to be the truck used in the slaying. Cops arrested Baim two days later.

Photos on Valison’s phone captured Baim’s truck.

Detective Sarah Gerlitz spoke at the sentencing hearing, saying Baim was a drug addict, but that was no excuse for murder.

“We interviewed many people in the drug scene, and none of them described him as a good person,” Gerlitz said, per KOMO. “This is not a person who feels remorse, he only feels sorry for himself as he sits in this courtroom.”

Baim claimed the killing was an accident and said he was “not an evil person.”

“It was a bad decision that was fueled by heavy drug use and addiction,” he told the judge. “I’ve been sober for two years and not a day goes by that I wish I couldn’t take back everything that’s happened.”

But Judge William L. Dixon said while it seemed the defendant was remorseful, the “situation was completely avoidable.”

“You are talking about a property crime … there’s a level of selfishness that’s involved in the decisions you made,” he reportedly told Baim before sentencing him.

Prosecutors described Valison as an avid outdoorsman who loved mountain biking. He worked at Hewlett-Packard for 25 years, his obituary said. He was protecting his neighborhood when he died.

“One friend described this deed as his ‘last great act,’” the obituary said.