The call late Thursday was the news Pamela Heck had been waiting to hear for nearly 22 years: Tacoma police had arrested the man they believe had killed her mother, 47-year-old Kathleen Graham.
“I’ve been waiting for this day,” Heck, 48, said Friday. “It’s just amazing, and I am so thankful to the Police Department that they remembered my mom and did not forget about her.”
Pierce County prosecutors Thursday charged Dontese White, 38, with first-degree murder in Graham’s slaying Dec. 30, 1989, on the Hilltop.
Heck said she’s looking forward to seeing her mother’s accused killer in court.
In 1989, Graham was the mother of five grown children and a longtime saleswoman at the SeaTac Mall Sears store. She lived in a Federal Way apartment carefully decorated with porcelain dolls, ornaments and turn-of-the-century art deco embellishments.
“She was classy and beautiful,” Heck said. “She was my everything.”
The day before she was killed, Graham visited with most of her eight grandchildren and saw Heck. That night, she went out with some of her family and her boyfriend of three months to the Federal Way restaurant where the couple had met.
What Heck knows about what happened later comes from family members, police and media reports.
After dinner, Graham’s boyfriend wanted to find his younger brother, who lived on the Hilltop. He drove Graham’s car as she sat in the passenger seat.
The two couldn’t find the brother and stopped at South 21st and L streets just after 2 a.m. They were approached, and her mother rolled down her window, Heck said.
Charging documents allege White spoke with Graham and gave her drugs, which she complained were fake. He demanded payment, then fired into the car, killing Graham, prosecutors allege.
Heck said her mother didn’t do drugs and had been along for the ride with her boyfriend that night.
White, who was 16 and affiliated with the Hilltop Crips at the time, had long been a suspect in the shooting.
Interviewed by police, he fingered another man as the gunman. He said he handed his gun to the shooter before the two approached Graham and her boyfriend.
The alleged gunman was never charged because of a lack of credible evidence, prosecutors have said.
Graham’s case went cold until a recent investigation of the Crips generated a new lead.
The FBI’s South Sound Gang Task Force interviewed a man who identified White as the gunman in the slaying. His information was verified, and White was charged in the slaying.
Graham’s death devastated the family and particularly Heck, who said she battled depression and struggled to keep a job.
“My life has never been the same,” she said. “This is the beginning of the second chapter of my life.”
Stacey Mulick: 253-597-8268
stacey.mulick@thenewstribune.com
blog.thenewstribune.com/crime
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