Shooting victim is hoping for justice

In a sense, Jasson Hines really did kill Tracy Armstrong.

Armstrong is still alive. He's living in Panguitch, confined to a wheelchair. Hines is now heading to the Utah State Prison to serve up to life in prison for attempted murder.

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But in a sense, Armstrong says, he was killed that night at Panguitch Lake.

"Because he killed the old me. The Tracy Armstrong everybody knew," Armstrong said in an interview Friday with the Deseret Morning News. "He really has taken what used to be Tracy Armstrong, and I have to go and re-create Tracy Armstrong. Now I'm Tracy Armstrong who has to go and learn how to do things as a paraplegic."

Hines pleaded guilty on Friday and was sentenced to four years to life in prison for the bizarre shooting that paralyzed Armstrong. In August, Hines walked up to Armstrong at the Blue Springs Lodge and opened fire, shooting him several times at point-blank range with a handgun. The two didn't know each other: Armstrong managed the cabins there, and Hines was supposed to be vacationing.

After shooting Armstrong in the chest, neck and shoulder, Hines also shot at Armstrong's son and then ran to a nearby campground and tried to grab a child, police said. Authorities said it took three Garfield County sheriff's deputies and a Utah Highway Patrol trooper to subdue Hines, who fought with them as he was being arrested.

"The only explanation is that he had a devil or something in him," Armstrong said Friday. "Because nothing explains why he would come there. When he shot me he yelled, 'I'm God and you're dead.' He also claimed to be God as he stood over taunting me."

Since that night, Armstrong has had to rebuild his life, a slow and painful process. The father of nine told the judge presiding over Hines' case that he'll never be able to kick a football with his sons or dance at any of his daughters' weddings. His career as a real-estate agent is severely limited, he said, because how can you show properties to prospective buyers in a wheelchair?

"I actually had my 9-year-old boy ask me how we were going to go on father-and-son outings now because this happened," Armstrong said, his voice choking on tears. "There's a lot of family traditions and a lot of things that are important to my children that have been taken."