Pasco woman strikes deal in Garcia shooting

Kristin M. Kraemer, Herald staff writer

A Pasco woman struck a deal with prosecutors and avoided more jail time for lying to police about a badly damaged van parked in her yard that was involved in the fatal shooting of Tiairra Jo Garcia.

What Verla Spencer kept from officers when they came knocking at her door late June 22, 2008, was that Garcia had been shot inside the van and Marnicus Lockhard had driven it to her home so he could hide his dying girlfriend.

Spencer's denial hampered what ultimately became a murder investigation once police realized the 19-year-old Garcia was more than just missing.

But this week, Spencer accepted some responsibility in the nearly year-old case and entered a modified guilty plea in Franklin County District Court to second-degree rendering criminal assistance, a gross misdemeanor.

She was sentenced to 364 days in jail with 324 days suspended and credit for having already served 40 days. There was no probation or fine ordered by the court.

The plea deal caught Prosecutor Steve Lowe by surprise. He had been planning in the next week to send Spencer's kidnapping case to Superior Court.

Lowe was out of town at training through the Washington Association of Prosecuting Attorneys.

"I was not aware it was going to happen and will review the file Monday with the deputy who handled it on Thursday," he told the Herald. "(Spencer's case) may have ended there (with a plea deal), but I did not know it was going to occur on Thursday."

Jim Egan, Spencer's attorney, could not be reached Friday for comment.

Spencer had been charged in District Court with first-degree kidnapping, along with Lockhard, Ashone Hollinquest and Andrea Parr.

Both Lockhard and Hollinquest were charged up to Superior Court, and Lowe anticipates doing the same soon with Parr's case.

During a 51/2-minute hearing Thursday, Deputy Prosecutor Dave Corkrum told the court Spencer was prepared to enter a plea to the amended charge.

Judge Jerry Roach reviewed with Spencer the rights she was giving up.

"If this matter was going to go to trial (prosecutors) would have to show beyond a reasonable doubt that in Franklin County on the date charged you intended to assist another to avoid apprehension, in this instance, for a charge of manslaughter in the second degree," Roach said, according to a District Court recording of the hearing.

Spencer said she understood that.

The Alford plea means she denied committing the crime but believed prosecutors had enough evidence to convict her.

Corkrum said prosecutors would prove that "Marnicus Lockhard arrived at the defendant's residence with an individual who was seriously injured and brought that individual into the defendant's home."

"Soon thereafter an officer appeared at the defendant's home and was making inquiries about an abandoned van that was parked in the defendant's yard," he added. "The defendant indicated she did not know where it came from. The individual taken into the home soon thereafter expired."

Garcia had been driving Lockhard and Hollinquest around to Pasco bars when she was accidentally shot in the torso. The van was parked at the time.

Instead of getting help, Lockhard moved Garcia out of the driver's seat, put the van into gear and drove around town, ultimately getting into a collision at 11:22 p.m. The van then was driven into the front yard of Spencer's Parkview Boulevard home.

Police arrived soon after getting reports of what appeared to be a body being carried into the house, but Spencer said she had no knowledge of the van or who had been driving it, court documents said.

One of Lockhard's lawyers has said Spencer was home with a relative and several children. Lockhard took the body into a bedroom, then moved it into a garage where he put it in a large suitcase and placed it in the back of a car, said Carl Sonderman.

Spencer is also alleged to have bought tape that was later found in the van with several blankets and a blood-stained rug. The blood matched Garcia's DNA profile.

Garcia's body was believed dumped the next day by Lockhard and Hollinquest in Mount Rainier National Park.

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Saturday, Jun. 20, 2009

Pasco woman strikes deal in Garcia shooting

Kristin M. Kraemer, Herald staff writer