Man pleads guilty to killing popular Lakewood barbershop owner, gets decades in prison
A man who killed a woman at her Lakewood barbershop during a crime spree last year was sentenced Tuesday to 50 years in prison.
Angel Manuel Martinez pleaded guilty to first-degree murder for the death of 57-year-old Pyong Sun Ryan, a popular business owner known for her kindness.
The 41-year-old also pleaded guilty in Pierce County Superior Court to first-degree robbery, two counts of attempted first-degree robbery, two counts of second-degree assault and motor vehicle theft.
Judge Alicia Burton sentenced him, according to court records.
Ryan’s daughter, Angela Howard, wrote the court ahead of sentencing.
“I am trapped within the walls of that day and in the pool of her blood that outlined her body there on the floor of her business,” Howard’s letter said. “Every evil detail I know from that day is burned into my memory and has scarred me. Angel Martinez wasn’t satisfied just to incapacitate my mother before robbing her. The coroner’s report documented all the excessive violent, brutal and gruesome injuries that he inflicted on her to solidify her death.”
According to charging papers:
Police got a report Aug. 8, 2019 that someone was assaulting people with a knife.
They investigated and found Ryan with blunt force injuries and stab wounds in a back room of her shop in the 9100 block of Highland Avenue Southwest.
Detectives found a ladder and scissors that appeared to have been used to injure her.
Ryan died at the scene.
Police took Martinez into custody nearby, where he had barricaded himself in a vehicle before surrendering. He had Ryan’s cellphone with him, as well as Korean and U.S. cash that had blood on it.
A woman who identified herself as his girlfriend told police that she and Martinez had taken public transit to a park near the barbershop.
They talked and used methamphetamine, and she went to use a restroom at a nearby laundromat.
When she came out Martinez was covered in blood, she told police.
She allegedly told someone else that Martinez said he was going to the barbershop because they needed a car to get back to Tacoma.
Others said Martinez tried to take vehicles in the area.
He demanded a car from a 76-year-old doing yard work and assaulted him with an air compressor and a can of WD/40. The 76-year-old fought him off with a golf club.
Martinez also charged a woman with a handsaw in a garage but left when she pointed a gun at him.
A delivery truck driver said he returned to his vehicle to find a man trying to start the truck before fleeing with a woman.
Police found Martinez barricaded in a different truck, taken from a man who fled when he saw Martinez holding a large knife.
