From La Pine to Argentina: Fugitive finally sentenced

Nearly 18 years ago, one of two men cutting trees for firewood in the woods near La Pine was arrested when officers found a .22 caliber pistol in his back pocket – an ex-felon in possession of a firearm.

This week, he was finally sentenced to over three years in federal prison – a dozen years after he fled with his family to Argentina and six years later ran into headline-grabbing trouble there – convicted of trying to kill his wife by setting her ablaze in the garage of their home.

The latest chapter in a tale that sounds much like a movie came when Patrick Champlin Tansy, now 50, was sentenced Tuesday by U.S. Chief District Judge Ann Aiken in Eugene to 37 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to that long-ago charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm.

Back on November 7 th , 1996, Deschutes County sheriff’s deputies, BLM and Forest Service officers contacted the two men after receiving information that trees in the area were being cut without proper permits, said Assistant U.S. Attorney William “Bud” Fitzgerald.

The pistol was found during a search for officer safety, and authorities knew from previous contacts with Tansy that he had been convicted in California in 1989 on a felony drug charge, Fitzgerald said.

After Tansy’s arrest, federal authorities widened the investigation, and a federal grand jury in Eugene later indicted him on several counts of felon in possession of a firearm, as well as charges for the unlawful taking of timber on public land.

More than six years after the arrest, in April 2002, Tansy pleaded guilty to one count of felon in possession of a firearm, but was allowed to remain free while awaiting sentencing. He failed to appear for his sentencing hearing in Eugene, and an arrest warrant was issued.

Authorities later learned Tansy had fled the state, moving his family to Buenos Aires, Argentina. While there, Tansy was convicted of assaulting his wife during a domestic dispute and sentenced to prison.

According to Argentine press reports, in January 2008, Tansy burned the detached garage of their large home, located in an exclusive gated community in Bariloche, using gasoline to severely burn his wife, Tracy. He then went back to the house and tried to commit suicide by cutting his arms with a knife and taking medication, but was unsuccessful.

Nearby construction workers provided medical aid to the woman, and Tansy was arrested by police after barricading himself for about three hours. Police found him bleeding in a bathroom after breaking in.

At trial, as the media wrote stories of the couple’s tempestuous relationship, Tansy testified he had no memories of the fateful night he tried to burn his wife alive, as they had been using cocaine and alcohol. He was convicted and sentenced to 10 years in prison.

The following year, Tansy managed to escape from prison, the reports say, but he was found by police along a nearby road and apprehended without incident, then sent to a more secure prison.

Tansy was released to U.S. authorities in January of this year, in response to a request by the federal government for his extradition, Fitzgerald said.

Asked about the 2002 decision to let Tansy stay free pending sentencing, Fitzgerald told NewsChannel 21 Friday that at the time “it was a ho-hum felon in possession (of a firearm) case,” one of numerous such cases to arise.

“Felon in possession is not a crime of violence, and would not on its own indicate someone is a candidate for pre-trial detention,” he said.

While “there were long periods when nothing happened” in the case, Fitzgerald said the sentencing brought some interesting remarks by Tansy about the Argentina conviction.

“He came into court and said he was railroaded in Argentina — that it’s a corrupt court system and his conviction shouldn’t carry any weight,” Fitzgerald said. “He made it sound like he was a victim of the corrupt government — they wanted property, he wasn’t going to part with it and they set him up.”