A man charged in the shooting death of a 46-year-old Tacoma man in December 2021 has been released from jail after reaching a plea agreement with the state that reduced his charges and resulted in a sentence equivalent to time already served.
Kenneth Lamar Jr., 30, was sentenced for second-degree manslaughter and was released on 14 November due to credit for time served. Lamar and co-defendant Keon Simms were previously charged with first-degree murder in the shooting death of Jason Arkell.
According to previous information from the Tacoma Police Department, officers responded to a report of a shooting on the 1800 block of South 93rd Street just before 12:30 a.m. on 20 December 2021. When officers arrived, they found 46-year-old Jason Arkell unresponsive inside a vehicle in the parking lot of an apartment complex.
Arkell was pronounced dead at the scene.
Tacoma police detectives were able to identify and establish probable cause to arrest two suspects.
According to the police department at the time, Simms was already in custody at the Pierce County Jail for a different offence, and Lamar was taken into custody by the Phoenix Police Department on an unrelated warrant.
In March, the state requested a plea deal after concerns were raised over “several substantive issues” raised by Lamar’s defence. There were also “factual risks” to the state’s case if it went to trial, according to a prosecutor’s statement. There were concerns those risks could “impact the presentation of evidence” in the effort to achieve a conviction.
A spokesperson for the Pierce County Prosecutor’s Office confirmed that whilst they do not see evidence presented as pointing to Lamar’s innocence, they do acknowledge “proof problems” connected to the case against Lamar.
In a press release, Lamar’s attorney, Emily Gause, stated there were “significant evidentiary weaknesses” that prevented the state from proving their case beyond a reasonable doubt, and evidence pointed to Lamar’s innocence. The defence revealed “deep flaws” in the prosecution’s case, “including unreliable witness accounts, missing forensic links, and exculpatory evidence previously overlooked.”
Meanwhile, Simms remains in Pierce County Jail awaiting trial.
The release of Kenneth Lamar Jr. following a plea agreement that reduced his first-degree murder charge to second-degree manslaughter illustrates the complex calculations prosecutors must make when evidentiary problems threaten their ability to secure convictions at trial, balancing the desire for accountability against the risk of complete acquittal if juries find the evidence insufficient.
The reduction from first-degree murder to second-degree manslaughter represents a dramatic charge decrease, as first-degree murder in Washington carries mandatory life sentences without possibility of parole whilst second-degree manslaughter involves substantially shorter sentences. This charge reduction, combined with credit for time served resulting in immediate release, suggests prosecutors concluded their case faced such significant challenges that securing any conviction, even on a lesser charge, represented a better outcome than risking complete acquittal at trial.
The shooting death of Jason Arkell on 20 December 2021, discovered when police found the 46-year-old unresponsive inside a vehicle in an apartment complex parking lot, initially appeared to be a straightforward homicide investigation that led to first-degree murder charges against two suspects. However, the subsequent unravelling of the prosecution’s case demonstrates how initial charging decisions based on preliminary evidence can prove untenable as defence attorneys scrutinise witness credibility, forensic evidence, and alternative explanations for events.
