2nd trial starts for shooting outside Kennewick tavern

Tyree Q. Houfmuse shot his girlfriend’s ex outside a Kennewick tavern a year ago in retaliation for an earlier assault involving his family, a prosecutor told jurors Monday.

The 33-year-old suspect knew Anthony L. Asselin was not armed as they talked in the Village Tavern parking lot the night before Thanksgiving, said Deputy Prosecutor Terry Bloor.

No punches were thrown and Houfmuse never claimed he thought he was in danger. But then Houfmuse pulled out a gun and fired six shots, hitting Asselin three times and causing permanent paralysis, Bloor said in opening statements.

“This case is about the defendant taking a gun to a possible fistfight …,” he said. “It was purely for revenge.”

This is Houfmuse’s second Benton County trial on charges of first-degree assault with a gun and second-degree gun possession.

The first trial ended in a mistrial in July after a juror wrote an online post questioning the evidence collection process by Kennewick police.

The 13 jurors were questioned about the post but no one admitted doing it. Then, hours after the trial ended, a male juror reportedly returned to the courthouse and admitted the misconduct.

On Monday, Houfmuse’s attorney, John Crowley of Seattle, told the jury his client acted in self-defense when he managed “to get the gun away” from Asselin because he was scared of Asselin’s violent temper.

Houfmuse had known Asselin for a long time and knew his friend had an explosive temper and a reputation for being a tough fighter, Crowley said.

“There was, in a way, a theft” when Houfmuse started dating Aquarius Gibbs, who had a child with Asselin.

Houfmuse believed that relationship ended poorly, and naturally Asselin had some bad feelings about the new romance, Crowley said.

In the month leading up to the Nov. 26 shooting, Gibbs and Houfmuse received a barrage of calls from Asselin with obscene language and threats to kill, the attorney claimed. The couple for the most part stayed home to avoid Asselin until that night, when another person encouraged them to stop at the tavern.

Houfmuse could sense that Asselin was extremely angry and went outside to try to calm him down and “talk it out like men,” he said. That is when the gun came out.

Asselin, now 30, was paralyzed from the chest down after one of the bullets became lodged in his spine. He is a father of four and a local rapper who goes by the name “Redd 100.”

Gibbs has denied seeing her boyfriend shoot Asselin. She is expected to testify that Houfmuse had a gun that night and that it didn’t look like the two men were having problems or arguing before the shots were fired, Bloor said.

Gibbs “is not going to be here as a friend of the prosecution,” added Bloor, telling jurors that she previously pleaded guilty to second-degree rendering criminal assistance for driving Houfmuse from the scene and helping him hide in Hermiston.

Felicia Richardson testified Monday that she stepped outside of the tavern that night to make sure Asselin was OK and that’s when she saw Houfmuse talking to him. Asselin was walking away from Houfmuse when she heard several shots and saw her friend fall.

Testimony in the new trial continues Nov. 17 at the Benton County Justice Center. Houfmuse is in the Benton County jail on $200,000 bail.

This story was originally published November 16, 2015 at 8:08 PM with the headline "2nd trial starts for shooting outside Kennewick tavern."