Nearly 60 Year Sentence in West Seattle Murder Case
Last Friday, the defendant in a West Seattle murder case was sentenced to nearly 60 years. Friday’s sentencing follows a trial argued by the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, which resulted in a guilty verdict on October 11, 2023.
This was a case that happened in June 2022 in West Seattle, and prosecutors described it as a multi-location violent crime spree. It started with an attempted robbery in an alley where the defendant was armed with a pistol-grip shotgun. He pointed the gun at the victim and struck him with it. He then drove to a nearby encampment, entered an RV, and shot another victim in the stomach with the shotgun. Harborview Medical Center emergency trauma doctors saved his life.
After the shooting, the defendant then drove to another encampment where he kidnapped an acquaintance at gunpoint. He marched that victim deeper into the encampment to his next victim’s shelter. Once there, he murdered a man, shooting him as he sat on his bed.
Seattle Police responded to this crime spree and in less than two days captured the defendant. The detectives assigned to this case worked tirelessly to thoroughly investigate the crime and swiftly bring this case to trial and closure for the West Seattle community.
Senior Deputy Prosecutors Aubony Burns and James Daniels handled the case, and after years of work on this case, a jury came back with guilty verdicts for first-degree murder with a firearm enhancement, first-degree attempted robbery with a firearm enhancement, first-degree attempted murder with a firearm enhancement, and first-degree kidnapping with a firearm enhancement earlier this month. Overall in 2023, the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office has resolved 59 violent crime cases through trial this year (as of September) — a number that includes 17 murder completed murder trials.
