Why’d man kill Tacoma car-lot owner? Because he’s ‘evil,’ victim’s daughter says
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Jerry Espana Davila was sentenced for killing the owner of a Tacoma auto sales lot.
- Espana Davila, who’d been deported multiple times, was given nearly 33 years in prison.
- The victim, Virgil “Ray” Stebbins, was reportedly a legend in local dirt-track racing.
A 41-year-old man who had been deported multiple times was sentenced Friday to nearly 33 years in prison for fatally shooting a well-known figure in the local dirt-track racing scene outside the victim’s business in Tacoma.
Jerry Espana Davila was convicted by a jury in July of two first-degree murder charges and two second-degree murder charges in the killing of 64-year-old Virgil “Ray” Stebbins, who owned A to B Auto Sales on South Tacoma Way where he was shot to death inside his car.
On the early morning of Feb. 19, 2024, Espana Davila shot Stebbins twice in the side of the head for reasons still unknown, prosecutors have said. Espana Davila was arrested three days later at the Humane Society of Tacoma & Pierce County after police discovered that a dog left at the crime scene — and later hit by a car in the area — was being picked up from the shelter, court records show.
“The jury saw your actions for what they were: evil,” Stebbins’ daughter, Tabitha Gaulin, told Espana Davila from the witness stand Friday, as she read her victim-impact statement inside a courtroom in Pierce County Superior Court.
After previously losing her mother to cancer and her sister in an accident, Gaulin is now the sole surviving member of her family of four, according to a GoFundMe created by a close friend following Stebbins’ murder. Other family members, including an uncle and aunt, accompanied Gaulin to the sentencing hearing.
Only minutes before the shooting, Stebbins had called police to report a stranger in a white truck on his car lot. The man had asked him for a ride, which Stebbins declined, and also had been walking around Stebbins’ car with a dog, prosecutors said. As a 911 operator told Stebbins that units were en route, groaning could be heard on the line, The News Tribune previously reported.
Espana Davila drove Stebbins’ vehicle away from the scene. It was found later that day, with Stebbins’ body inside, in Central Tacoma, court records show.
Stebbins was a humble, kind and inspirational man, Gaulin said, and Espana Davila had stolen her opportunity to make more memories with him, including on fishing trips and at car races.
“But nothing you did can erase the good that already existed or the love we carry for him,” she said.
The prison term of 32 years and nine months, which prosecutors had asked for, was at the highest end of the sentencing range, according to court records. Due to jurors finding Espana Davila guilty of four types of the same criminal incident, he was sentenced for only one count of first-degree murder, but it had no effect on the length of time behind bars he could have received, according to deputy prosecuting attorney Elizabeth Dasse.
During the trial in July, the prosecution told jurors it could not prove a motive for the killing but that it didn’t have to do so.
“The specter of why Mr. Espana Davila murdered Mr. Stebbins has loomed over this case since its inception. There was no connection between Mr. Espana Davila and Mr. Stebbins, no bad blood, no personal or professional conflict,” Dasse wrote in a sentencing memo late last month.
“The only reasonable conclusion,” Dasse added, “is Mr. Espana Davila believed he had the right to take Mr. Stebbins’s life in those moments and did so in a manner that would best preserve his own interests in flight and avoiding accountability.”
Judge Matthew Thomas, who handed down the sentence, said Friday that Espana Davila declined to participate in a pre-sentencing investigation, leaving questions about any motive to linger unanswered.
Unrestrained and wearing a dark-gray jail uniform and pink undershirt, Espana Davila also declined to provide any comments during his hearing, which several of his family members attended.
“When we talk about seriousness of offense, it’s important to understand the terrible impact this has had on Ray’s family and the people who knew him,” Thomas said. “The grief that you feel is beyond words to describe, but the court recognizes your grief, and I am sorry that you have had to go through this terrible thing.”
Stebbins, a talented musician, had a contagious positive attitude and big smile, according to victim-impact statements filed with the court by family or friends. He was a devoted husband and father who showed resilience and strength despite personal tragedy, filings said.
‘You alone deserve to be held accountable’
Espana Davila, a Mexican national, was previously deported from the country on four occasions by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and once by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, an ICE spokesperson told The News Tribune. He was removed in 2004, 2005, twice in 2007, and 2010, according to the spokesperson. Three of the deportations — excluding both in 2007 (Texas) — stemmed from apprehensions in Washington state, they said.
After Espana Davila was arrested in this case, the spokesperson said ICE lodged an immigration detainer — a request to take a person into federal immigration custody before they are released by local or other authorities.
“If the county does the right thing for public safety by honoring the ICE detainer, we’ll be sure to hold Espana accountable for immigration violations and enter him into removal proceedings,” the spokesperson said in an email to The News Tribune on Oct. 3.
Washington state’s Keep Washington Working Act limits state and local law enforcement’s participation in enforcing federal immigration law in most circumstances.
“The Department of Corrections is allowed to coordinate with the federal government before a non-citizen inmate’s release so that the inmate can be removed from the country,” Adam Faber, a spokesperson for the Pierce County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, said in an email to The News Tribune on Oct. 3. “In this case, I expect that to be a few decades from now.”
In her statement to the court, Gaulin emphasized that only Espana Davila was to blame for his crime.
“Let me be clear when I say this, you did not murder my father because you came from somewhere else or because you weren’t born in the same place or speak the same primary language,” she said. “You did this because you yourself are evil with no regard for others, and you alone deserve to be held accountable for this awful action.”
Gaurav Sharma, Espana Davila’s court-appointed attorney, called the case a tragedy and said it wasn’t clear why Espana Davila had done what he did. Sharma suggested that his client, who he said has a history of substance-abuse issues, was likely under the influence of some drug — perhaps methamphetamine — at the time of the killing.
“We don’t have all the answers,” he said.
Sharma also acknowledged that Espana Davila was expected to be deported to Mexico after he serves his sentence.
Court records show that Espana Davila was convicted in Texas in 2007 of being in the country unlawfully after a deportation. He also has a felony third-degree assault conviction and a lengthy misdemeanor criminal record in Washington state dating back to 2000, including convictions for theft, assault and DUI, according to court records.
“This loss is forever. There is no sentence long enough, no justice deep enough, to fill the empty space left in our lives,” Gaulin said. “My father’s absence will echo through every celebration, every milestone, and every quiet moment where his loud, joyful voice should be.”
