He got life for Tacoma murder under ‘three strikes' law. Now he gets another chance

Yahoo

28-01-2025

A Pierce County judge found Friday that a man serving life in prison for the 1996 murder of a drug dealer in Tacoma had rehabilitated himself while incarcerated and earned a 36-year sentence that will see him freed in about eight years.
When Anthony Enrico Hamilton was first sentenced for kidnapping, robbing and fatally shooting 22-year-old Lakey 'Key-Key' Ashford, he had two prior convictions considered 'most serious offenses.' That meant the only punishment available to the judge was life in prison without parole under Washington's 'three strikes law,' the Persistent Offender Accountability Act.
In 2019, the state Legislature removed second-degree robbery from the list of crimes considered most serious offenses, and two years later the Legislature made the change retroactive. That eliminated a 'strike' from Hamilton's record, so he was eligible to receive a new sentence.
The law that made the change retroactive, Senate Bill 5164, was sponsored by former state Sen. Jeannie Darneille, a Tacoma Democrat.
The legislation came amid racial reckoning over police killings of George Floyd, Manuel Ellis and other Black people. The 'three strikes law' disproportionately affected Black offenders, according to a Seattle Times analysis of Department of Corrections data. A 2024 report found that reforms did little to address the issue.
In court filings, Hamilton's defense attorney from the Department of Assigned Counsel, Mary K. High, argued that Judge Thomas Quinlan should give her client a sentence below the standard range based on his significant rehabilitation and community support.
High wrote that Hamilton, 54, is not the man he was when he was arrested 27 years ago. Despite his life sentence, she said, Hamilton has spent his time in prison mentoring troubled young people who are incarcerated as part of a passion of curbing the cycle of violence among at-risk youth.
In prison Hamilton also earned his GED, worked as a porter for more than 20 years and completed vocational training in drywall construction and building maintenance through Grays Harbor College. The defense requested a sentence of 31 years, seven months.
'Mr. Hamilton's life is one of transformation, in which he has overcome his childhood trauma, entanglement in community gang activity and violence, to reconnect with family, create relationships as close as family, and mentorship,' High wrote.
The standard sentencing range for Hamilton's convictions — first-degree murder, first-degree kidnapping and first-degree robbery — was about 42.5 to 55.33 years, including two firearm sentencing enhancements.
Deputy prosecuting attorney Sunni Ko asked Quinlan to impose a 50-year sentence, arguing in court filings that Hamilton had not proven his rehabilitation was a substantial and compelling reason for the court to impose a punishment below the standard range that was also 20-plus years fewer than his codefendant received.
Ko said Hamilton methodically planned and executed the robbery, kidnapping and murder of Ashford, and the fact that he has never admitted his complicity in the killing or remorse for it happening should give the court pause when deciding to release Hamilton.
According to court records, Hamilton and Andrew Rowe kidnapped Ashford from his Seattle home on July 12, 1996, and stole gold-rimmed tires, drugs and money before driving him to Tacoma. A third co-conspirator testified that he agreed to follow Hamilton and Rowe to Tacoma in Ashford's Ford Thunderbird in exchange for crack cocaine.
Ashford, who was handcuffed, was then put in his own car, where Hamilton and Rowe shot him to death.
A palm print found on the door of Ashford's car connected Hamilton to the crime, according to court records, and he fit the general description of two men seen at Ashford's apartment before the shooting. He and Rowe were later convicted in a jury trial, and Rowe is serving a 56-year prison sentence at the Monroe Correctional Complex.
'The killing was premeditated, calculated, violent, vicious, and senseless,' Ko wrote.
Ko said advocates for Hamilton believe he is no longer a danger to the public because he has changed, but she said they did not hear the evidence during trial or have to mourn the loss of a 22-year-old man who was a brother and a beloved son.
'There are no guarantees in life and there is certainly no guarantee that Hamilton, now a changed man, will not re-offend,' Ko said.