Grisly murder trial unravels — defendant’s lies force mistrial and ‘a mess’

When the grim case began in February 2015, three people were charged with first-degree murder.

But on Nov. 4, Pierce County prosecutors saw one murder conviction slip away.

They face the possibility of losing two more, because of the ever-shifting stories of Crystal Jackson, 31, a key defendant nicknamed “Lady Hoodster,” who struck a bargain to save herself while letting two acquaintances go down for a brutal killing.

Meanwhile, Jesus Isidor-Mendoza is still lost, and his mother still mourns. He was 18 when he died in late October 2014, trapped in a drug deal gone bad. Court records say he was raped and drowned in a bucket, his body cut in half, his remains stuffed into trash bags, dumped into a ravine and discovered four months later.

“A good son, a good friend and a good brother,” Maria Mendoza said in court Nov. 4, as she watched Wallace Jackson, 50, one of the men accused of killing her son, plead guilty to rendering criminal assistance instead of murder.

“The sentence that will be passed today will be imperfect.”

The plea bargain

Tacoma police found Isidor-Mendoza’s remains in February 2015, following up on an overheard remark from Wallace Jackson, who later told investigators he had helped Crystal Jackson (no relation) move the body.

From the beginning, Wallace Jackson denied involvement in Isidor-Mendoza’s death — but Crystal Jackson, also charged with first-degree murder, said otherwise. She told police that Wallace Jackson and another man, 51-year-old Darrell Daves, killed the boy.

Based on her account, prosecutors charged both men. Both pleaded not guilty.

Crystal Jackson’s statements grew out of a plea bargain with prosecutors: In exchange for testifying against the two men, she would walk away with a conviction for second-degree manslaughter and a comparatively light sentence.

The bargain included her promise to tell the truth. She didn’t — and that created what Deputy Prosecutor Jared Ausserer calls a mess in the midst of a trial: a key witness exposed as a liar.

“We were able to determine that she was being dishonest about certain things,” Ausserer said in a recent interview. “We confronted her with it. She came up with another version of what happened. At that point in time I could no longer put her on the stand. Without her, I couldn’t connect these two individuals to the crime independently.”

The immediate effect: a mistrial ruling for Daves and Wallace Jackson’s guilty plea to a lesser charge, leading to a sentence of 43 months instead of 30 years or more.

Defense attorney Brett Purtzer, who represents Wallace Jackson, said the outcome supported his client’s unwavering denials. He and Ausserer called Crystal Jackson the ringleader of the killing, perhaps helped by other unidentified parties.

“When she was arrested, she denied everything,” Purtzer said. “By the time she got to trial, she’d given nine different statements. I still don’t think she’s told who the perpetrators are.”

Conflicting stories

By all accounts in court records and police reports, the killing of Isidor-Mendoza was ugly. Details vary slightly depending on the source, but he died at Crystal Jackson’s home in the 200 block of East 65th Street.

The defendants knew each other and shared a common interest in drugs, especially methamphetamine. Wallace Jackson was a small-time dealer. Daves, nicknamed “New York,” was a frequent user who sometimes stayed in Crystal Jackson’s detached garage.

Crystal Jackson was a dealer too, but she operated on a larger scale, arranging sales through gang connections in California, according to statements in court records. She was known as “Lady Hoodster,” police reports say.

According to one account provided by Daves to a fellow jail inmate, Crystal Jackson had fronted a half ounce of meth to Isidor-Mendoza, expecting the teen to return with payment. He didn’t. It doomed him.

Here, the stories diverge. After her initial arrest in February 2015, Crystal Jackson said Daves and Wallace Jackson lured the boy into a detached garage next to the house and killed him there. She said she heard noises, walked to the garage and saw the incident unfolding, but didn’t participate.

Wallace Jackson told police he didn’t know Isidor-Mendoza and hadn’t participated in the killing. He said Crystal Jackson had called him in late October 2014, asking for a drug hookup. He answered and came to her house. Crystal Jackson greeted him with a gun, he told police. She told him he was going to help her with something, demanded his identification and told him to shut up.

“She has this nice, pretty shiny .38,” he told police. “She pointed it at me as she was talking.”

He said she led him to the red bag that contained the remains. He didn’t see the body, but could smell it. He heard Crystal Jackson say the victim messed up.

He told police she ordered him into her truck and drove north, to an address in the 3000 block of South Delin Street, not far from Holy Rosary Church. Together, they shouldered the bag into a ravine.

Daves gave two versions of the incident. In an initial interview with police, he said he didn’t know anything about the killing, but had heard Crystal Jackson and Wallace Jackson talking about moving a body.

Later, in jail after charges were filed and the story made the news, Daves told a fellow inmate a different story, saying he had participated in the killing with Wallace Jackson, at Crystal Jackson’s order, and rode to the ravine where they dumped the body.

That version took another twist when Daves threatened the same inmate and talked him into writing a letter to investigators. In the letter, the inmate claimed to have spoken directly to Wallace Jackson, who said he had handled the killing alone.

Subsequently, the inmate recanted his story when interviewed by police, saying Daves had threatened his daughter.

The case sinks

Ultimately, conflicting stories from Crystal Jackson sank the case against Wallace Jackson on Nov. 1, in the midst of trial testimony. Ausserer, the deputy prosecutor, and Purtzer, the defense attorney, agree on that much.

The key detail hinged on the location of the killing. Crystal Jackson initially said it took place in the detached garage. Another witness, now dead, had told police Crystal Jackson had shown him a photo on her phone of Isidor-Mendoza’s mutilated body in a bathtub inside the house.

Confronted with that information, Crystal Jackson changed her account again, according to Purtzer, and dropped a new name as a player in the killing.

“She completely guts her entire statement,” Purtzer said. “My next role was to cross examine her — I had plenty to work with.”

Ausserer knew it. Two charges of first-degree murder unraveled in an instant. An immediate mistrial was declared in Daves’ case, and Wallace Jackson was allowed to plead guilty to the lesser charge of rendering criminal assistance.

In court three days later, on Nov. 4, Ausserer told Superior Court Judge Phil Sorensen he believed Wallace Jackson was involved in the murder, but acknowledged he couldn’t prove it.

“It is Crystal’s fault,” Ausserer said afterward. “Not only is it Crystal’s fault that we’re at the stage we are now, but she was the motivation for the entire incident. She was the ringleader of this. She was the one that called the shots in the situation. I think she was ultimately responsible for (Isidor-Mendoza’s) death and for the mess we’re in now.”

The knowledge provided little comfort to Maria Mendoza, who addressed the court through an interpreter at Wallace’s sentencing.

“I am the mother,” she said, and paused for a long time. She said she wanted Wallace Jackson to spend the rest of his life in prison, that he had abused her son’s human dignity.

Purtzer replied on his client’s behalf.

“I cannot imagine what Ms. Mendoza’s gone through,” he said. “But we have a different opinion as to what Mr. Jackson’s role was. He helped move the body. He was not involved in the homicide.”

Before sentencing Wallace Jackson to 43 months in prison, Sorensen grew solemn and addressed the defendant.

“What happened here is an outrage, Mr. Jackson — an outrage,” he said. “The offer that you received is what had to be done given the circumstances. What’s imperfect is that the (sentencing) range is so insufficient for the behavior that was displayed here.”

Sorensen turned to the victim’s grieving mother.

“Ms. Mendoza, I’m sorry for your loss,” he said. “I’m sorry that what you sat through for the last two weeks ended so poorly.”

Next stage

The immediate challenge for Ausserer is picking up the pieces. He intends to seek a new trial for Daves, with arguments scheduled for next month, and the prospect of additional charges. He believes he has enough evidence to obtain a conviction for first-degree murder, even without Crystal Jackson’s testimony.

It won’t be easy. Daves’ attorney, Sean Wickens, has filed a motion for dismissal of the murder charge, arguing that taking another run at Daves after the mistrial exposes his client to double jeopardy. That argument is scheduled for Dec. 19.

The other test involves Crystal Jackson. Her sentencing hearing is scheduled for Jan. 13. It hinges on the plea bargain agreement she signed.

She’s charged with first-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. The plea bargain erases the first charge, guaranteeing a theoretical sentence of two years and four months in prison — but only if she kept her promise to tell the truth.

Her defense will be that she did. Ausserer will argue that she didn’t — that her changing stories nullify the plea bargain and expose her to hard time.

“I believe she hasn’t complied with those conditions, so she’d be sentenced to murder in the first degree,” the prosecutor said. “Her attorney of course disagrees with that.”

This story was originally published November 17, 2016 at 7:00 AM with the headline "Grisly murder trial unravels — defendant’s lies force mistrial and ‘a mess’."