He got 75 years in the fatal shooting of Tacoma’s Camille Love. Now he’ll get a new trial

The only man to be tried by a jury for the fatal drive-by shooting of Camille Love in Tacoma will get a new trial, the state Supreme Court said Thursday.

Eduardo Sandoval was sentenced to 75 years, four months in prison after jurors convicted him of first-degree murder, first-degree assault and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder in connection to the shooting.

The high court upheld the assault and conspiracy convictions but said Sandoval, 28, needs a new trial for the murder count because the jury should have been able to consider the lesser crime of manslaughter.

He was one of seven charged for the shooting that mistakenly targeted the 20-year-old Love and her brother as part of a retaliatory attack against a rival gang.

The siblings had nothing to do with the conflict or any gangs but were fired upon Feb. 7, 2010 as Love was stopped at a traffic light. Investigators said they were targeted because of the color of her car and of the brother’s jacket, which her killers associated with a rival gang. She was killed, and her brother, who was riding in the passenger seat, was injured.

Four of Sandoval’s co-defendants pleaded guilty and received sentences that ranged from about 12 to 35 years; two others eluded arrest.

Sandoval was at meetings where the gang organized the plan to use a stolen van to drive around and find members of the rival gang to shoot, and his job was to be on the lookout, according to court records.

“He rode around in the car, looking for rival gang members, and reported the location of police to his compatriots in the van, thereby facilitating the shooting,” Justice Barbara Madsen wrote for the majority.

Sandoval and another gang member were also accused of taking the alleged driver of the van to Mexico a couple weeks later — after someone matching the driver’s description was identified as a possible suspect.

As the jurors in Sandoval’s case deliberated, they were not allowed to consider first-degree manslaughter as a lesser conviction.

Sandoval’s attorney asked that the jury be allowed to do so, but then-Pierce County Superior Court Judge Linda Lee disagreed.

That means he needs a new trial, the high court said.

In its decision, the Supreme Court cited another Pierce County case in which jurors in a murder trial weren’t allowed to consider manslaughter as a lesser crime.

Marsele Henderson was convicted of murder for shooting 18-year-old Victor Schwenke in 2008 outside a Tacoma house party. Division II of the state Court of Appeals sent his case back to Superior Court in 2014, saying that then-Judge John McCarthy had been wrong to not allow jurors to consider manslaughter.

A rational jury could have convicted Henderson of manslaughter while acquitting him of murder, the court found.

In both cases: “The shooter aimed a gun toward an occupied structure, fired repeatedly, and unsurprisingly someone was killed,” Madsen wrote in the Sandoval opinion, which was signed by Justices Charles Johnson, Susan Owens, Charles Wiggins and Mary Yu.

Chief Justice Mary Fairhurst and Justice Sheryl Gordon McCloud both wrote opinions that partially disagreed with the Sandoval majority.

Fairhurst argued the murder conviction should stand.

“... the jury still could have come to the same conclusion even if presented with more options on their verdict form,” she wrote, in an opinion signed by Justice Debra Stephens.

Fairhurst also wrote that Sandoval’s conviction for conspiracy to commit murder by extreme indifference should be reversed. Conspiring to commit a murder by extreme indifference isn’t possible, she argued.

Gordon McCloud agreed with that, but also agreed with the majority that the murder conviction for Love’s death should be reversed. Justice Steven Gonzalez signed her opinion.

Asked about the case, the Pierce County Prosecutor’s appellate division chief said in a statement that her office was pleased that two of Sandoval’s convictions were upheld and agreed with Fairhurst’s opinion as to the third.

“We accept that there may be similar arguments around the state from criminal defendants in the future and we, and other prosecutors’ offices, will fight those on a case-by-case basis,” deputy prosecutor Michelle Hyer wrote.

The firm that represented Sandoval in the Supreme Court matter, Davis Wright Tremaine, said in a statement: “We are pleased with the court’s decision to remand this charge for a new trial ... his attorneys are closely reviewing the court’s decision in order to determine their next steps.”

Love graduated high school on Whidbey Island and had intended to take classes at Pierce College. She wanted to be a veterinary technician.

This story was originally published January 18, 2018 at 6:03 PM with the headline "He got 75 years in the fatal shooting of Tacoma’s Camille Love. Now he’ll get a new trial."