Pasco murder suspect rejects plea deal

The alleged shooter in a 2014 Pasco murder case has rejected a plea deal that could have made him a free man before he turned 50.

A hearing was scheduled Tuesday in Franklin County Superior Court with the expectation that DeShawn I. Anderson was going to plead guilty.

But when the judge sat down in court, Shelley Ajax said, “My client has decided not to change his plea.”

Now, the 20-year-old Finley man is set to face a jury May 18 for first-degree murder and four counts of first-degree assault.

If convicted of all charges, Anderson could be locked up for at least 65 to 86 years because state law requires sentences for serious violent felonies to be served back-to-back. He does have a criminal history that would make those ranges longer.

If prosecutors add a firearm enhancement to each count before trial, that would carry an extra 25-year mandatory term.

The offer Anderson turned down would have brought a sentencing range of 23 to 31 years.

“The state was going to recommend 30 years, with the ability for us to argue anywhere within the standard range,” Ajax told the court.

Under the plea deal, Anderson would have admitted first-degree murder, and the assaults would have been dismissed.

Anderson had “a month or two” to review the offer, according to his attorney. It expired March 1 but was extended to Tuesday for the anticipated plea.

Anderson is alleged to have been one of two armed suspects who ambushed a parked car Nov. 18, 2014, and fired almost 20 rounds. Three of the four men sitting inside the car were injured.

Pasco police said that sparked a series of gang attacks over the following three weeks with two deaths, including Lorenzo “Richie” Fernandez Jr. Prosecutors have said Anderson was the “mastermind” in Fernandez’s shooting and the one who pulled the trigger.

Fernandez, 22, was killed Dec. 3, 2014, as he sat in his Ford Mustang at the Stonegate Apartments. He reportedly knew the four men in the earlier attack.

Ajax notified Judge Alex Ekstrom on Tuesday that she will be filing a motion for severance, meaning she wants the crimes separated into two trials. That will be argued in April.

This story was originally published March 8, 2016 at 9:03 PM with the headline "Pasco murder suspect rejects plea deal."