2nd trial for man accused of killing Kennewick father-to-be ends abruptly with new plea
A 24-year-old man pleaded guilty to killing a young father-to-be in a Kennewick home in 2018.
Lawrence Isaiah Groce was nearly through his second trial on Wednesday when he admitted to being part of the robbery-turned-murder inside the Yelm Street home in 2018.
He pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and second-degree assault in Benton County Superior Court.
The crimes will carry a sentencing range of between 12 and about 20 years in prison, Chief Deputy Prosecutor Julie Long said.
Prosecutors will argue for 20 years in prison while his defense attorney plans to ask for 16 years when he is sentenced.
A date for the sentencing hearing has not been set.
It was an abrupt end for Groce’s second trial that started about a week and a half earlier. An earlier trial in April ended with a hung jury.
Groce is the second of three people who are accused of breaking into the home where Hunter Black lived with his girlfriend, Cynarra Scott-Sortor, in October 2018.
Wardell E. Braxton, 23, said he entered the home and turned on lights, but left before shooting started. He agreed to testify in Groce’s trial and was sentenced to 13 years in prison.
Another man, Kavonte “K.C.” Conley, 24, remains on the loose. A nationwide warrant has been issued on charges of first-degree murder.
Murder plot
Black and his then-pregnant girlfriend were asleep in their Yelm Street home on Oct. 26, 2018. Scott-Sortor told police she woke up to loud yelling, and saw Hunter in the bedroom doorway yelling at two masked men.
The men were making demands of Black who sold marijuana.
Scott-Sortor told the jury during the last trial that Hunter moved toward a man holding a shotgun and quickly fell to the ground.
Around the same time, one of their roommates, Johnathan Williams, came out of his room and confronted the men. He struggled with the man with the gun, and the weapon was left behind.
Groce and the other man, believed to be Conley, fled the house and ran out to a dark car and drove away.
Police linked the shotgun to a Pasco woman, who was Conley’s grandmother. She told police Conley kept the gun under his bed.
Along with tying Conley to the crime, investigators also linked Braxton and Groce to the shooting.
Washington State Patrol Crime Lab scientists said they found a surprisingly large amount of DNA on the shotgun shell. According to the laboratory, the DNA profile is 7.4 decillion times more likely to have come from Groce than a random individual. A decillion is a one followed by 33 zeroes.
Investigators received further confirmation from Groce’s ex-girlfriend after he admitted in 2021 that he had killed Black.
This story was originally published September 15, 2023 at 10:58 AM.