Jury convicts man in 2006 fatal shooting of Tacoma woman

A jury found a man guilty Friday of the cold-case death of a woman shot a decade ago in downtown Tacoma.

Jurors convicted Brandon Lee Farmer, 30, of first-degree murder in the death of Velma Tirado.

The 45-year-old woman died Aug. 27, 2006, after Farmer and a friend picked her up in downtown Tacoma.

According to court records, Tirado was working as a prostitute, and the men took her to a local alley, where she performed oral sex on Farmer. He then shot her in the head with a revolver.

Farmer and the friend fled, and police had no suspects until the friend told California investigators in 2014 that he’d been the driver of the vehicle.

Tacoma police detectives interviewed him, and he told them Farmer had been the shooter.

Farmer initially said the friend had shot Tirado, after she refused to have oral sex with him without more money.

Investigators didn’t believe him, and witness statements seemed to back-up the friend’s account of what happened. The friend did not face charges in Tirado’s death.

Authorities extradited Farmer to Washington from West Virginia, where he’d been in custody on other charges.

Farmer is to be sentenced this month.

This story was originally published April 1, 2016 at 5:36 PM with the headline "Jury convicts man in 2006 fatal shooting of Tacoma woman."