Recent criminal sentencings in Pierce County

This list of articles highlights recent criminal sentencings, including those in Pierce County Superior Court.

In one incident, a Tacoma resident received a 15-year federal sentence for live-streaming child sexual abuse. In another case, a man fatally shot his ex-girlfriend during a breakup in Tacoma. He received a 23-year sentence. A former soldier from Joint Base Lewis-McChord was sentenced to 25 years for abusing multiple children. A previously convicted murderer will serve another 20 years for killing a woman in Tacoma.

Aiden Tyrrell, 18, is arraigned on first-degree murder, first-degree assault, drive by shooting and second-degree unlawful possession of a firearm in the March 23 killing of a 17-year-old girl, at Pierce County Superior Court, on Wednesday, March 27, 2024, in Tacoma, Wash. By Brian Hayes

NO. 1: HE FATALLY SHOT EX-GIRLFRIEND, 17, IN TACOMA DURING BREAKUP. HERE’S HIS SENTENCE

A young man who admitted to fatally shooting his 17-year-old ex-girlfriend outside her home in Tacoma’s Hilltop neighborhood while the two were in the midst of a breakup has been sentenced to 23 years in prison. | Published September 24, 2025 | Read Full Story by Peter Talbot

A sign marks the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington as a federal courthouse on Wednesday, April 23, 2025, in Tacoma, Wash. U.S. District Court Judge David G. Estudillo presided over a hearing in Tacoma on April 17, and asked a lawyer representing ICE to explain the agency’s decision to change the status of a Seattle-based UW doctoral student in this system. By Liesbeth Powers

NO. 2: FORMER JBLM SOLDIER SENTENCED FOR CHILD SEX ABUSE, THREATENING KIDS INTO SILENCE

A former soldier previously stationed at Joint Base Lewis-McChord was sentenced Friday in U.S. | Published September 27, 2025 | Read Full Story by Peter Talbot

NO. 3: ‘WHAT YOU DID WAS MONSTROUS’: TACOMA MAN LIVE-STREAMED TODDLER’S SEXUAL ABUSE

A 29-year-old Tacoma man was sentenced Tuesday to 15 years in federal prison for live-streaming the sexual abuse of a toddler in 2020, according to the U.S. | Published September 30, 2025 | Read Full Story by Shea Johnson

Jerry Espana Davila leaves a Pierce County Superior Court room on Friday, Oct. 17, 2025, after being sentenced to nearly 33 years in prison for the 2024 murder of Virgil “Ray” Stebbins in Tacoma. By Shea Johnson

NO. 4: WHY’D MAN KILL TACOMA CAR-LOT OWNER? BECAUSE HE’S ‘EVIL,’ VICTIM’S DAUGHTER SAYS

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. | Published October 18, 2025 | Read Full Story by Shea Johnson

Lance Melder was a tanker for the Army and had been stationed at Joint Base Lewis-McChord since August 2023. By Alyssa Melder

NO. 5: DRIVER SENTENCED IN I-5 CRASH THAT KILLED JBLM SOLDIER, A FATHER OF FOUR

The man who fatally struck an Army soldier stationed at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in a vehicle collision on Interstate 5, then carjacked another vehicle to flee, was sentenced Monday to three years, 10 months in prison. | Published October 8, 2025 | Read Full Story by Peter Talbot

Jerrmell Warren enters the courtroom for his sentencing on Friday, Oct. 17, 2025, at Pierce County Superior Court in Tacoma, Wash. Warren was convicted by a jury in August of felony murder for killing 39-year-old Angelina Palmer outside a Spanaway gas station in May 2022. By Liesbeth Powers

NO. 6: ‘YOU’RE NOT A MONSTER.’ PIERCE COUNTY MOTHER’S MURDERER FORGIVEN AT SENTENCING

Before Jerrmell Warren was sentenced to decades in prison Friday for murdering Angelina Palmer with a stray and reckless gunshot outside a Spanaway gas station, Palmer’s brother looked at Warren and offered words of forgiveness. | Published October 18, 2025 | Read Full Story by Peter Talbot

Michael Anthony Cooley appears in Pierce County Superior Court in Tacoma, Washington, on Thursday, May 2, 2024, to be arraigned on two counts of second-degree murder in the death of woman in Tacoma on Wednesday. By Tony Overman

NO. 7: PREVIOUSLY CONVICTED MURDERER NOW GOING BACK TO PRISON FOR KILLING TACOMA WOMAN

A man previously convicted of murder pleaded guilty to beating his girlfriend to death outside a housing complex in Tacoma and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. | Published October 13, 2025 | Read Full Story by Peter Talbot

The summary above was drafted with the help of AI tools and edited by journalists in our News division. All stories listed were reported, written and edited by McClatchy journalists.