She opened fire in a Richland home, wounding 2. Now she’s heading to prison
A woman is going to prison after shooting two people before they managed to escape into a quiet Richland neighborhood.
Lara Garcia, 30, opened fire inside a home on the 1900 block of McMurray Avenue on Jan. 26, 2023, where she left a man and woman injured.
She pleaded guilty to second-degree and third-degree assault in Benton County Superior Court last week. She also admitted to using a gun in one of the crimes, which added three years to her sentence.
Garcia, who will serve four years in prison, apologized for her behavior saying it was fueled by drug use and a toxic relationship.
“These actions do not define me,” she said. “I hope to become a productive member of society.”
The two assaults were the first felonies that Garcia had been convicted of, and Deputy Prosecutor Julie Long said Garcia would have faced a much longer sentence if there weren’t challenges in proving the case.
Long explained one of the victims, Thomascine McEachern, refused to name Garcia as the person who shot her.
The other victim, Dustin Nelson, gave one of two accounts of what happened in the house, but it was challenged by the homeowner’s son, who said he was attacked.
“This would have been a whole different (outcome) if the victim had been more cooperative,” Long said.
Since Garcia didn’t have any history of committing felonies, she faced between 3 1/2 and 4 years in prison. Long said Garcia and her then boyfriend Michael Reep were involved in drug trafficking at the house and asked for the maximum sentence.
Garcia’s attorney, Dennis Hanson, said the decision to plead guilty came after federal prosecutor declined to seek an indictment for Garcia.
Reep, who is believed to have shot and killed Jarrod Yockey, 51, inside of the McMurray Avenue home, has never been charged in connection with the shooting.
He has pleaded guilty to two counts of illegally possessing a gun and one count of having methamphetamine with the intent to deliver. He hasn’t been sentenced.
Deadly Shooting
Court documents have detailed two versions of what happened at the home on the day of the shooting. In one account, Nelson, Yockey and McEachern went to the home to get some items they claim had been stolen.
Yockey ended up fighting with the homeowner’s son and then Garcia allegedly opened fire, grazing Nelson’s arm, and then shooting him in the back as he tried to open the front door. She also allegedly wounded the other woman.
Nelson said he didn’t see who shot Yockey.
However, the homeowner’s son claims the men came to the door and asked for a phone charger. His roommate Reep talked with them through the window but didn’t want them inside. But the homeowner’s son let them in when they pounded on a door.
He claims Yockey attacked him and that Nelson and the other woman started taking things from the garage. He said he saw Reep with a gun but did not see who shot Yockey in the face.
Police were called after Nelson and McEachern ran out of the house and into traffic. They stopped passing cars to get help.