Man sentenced after pleading to manslaughter in connection to fatal Tacoma stabbing
A man charged in connection to a fatal stabbing in Tacoma has been sentenced.
Iralee James, 31, pleaded guilty earlier this year to first-degree manslaughter for the death of LaMont Rushton.
Records show Pierce County Superior Court Judge Stephanie Arend sentenced James to 15 years, five months in prison Thursday.
According to charging papers:
Rushton, 44, asked someone for a cigarette near South 25th and South A streets Dec. 13, 2018. The man gave him one, walked away, then heard yelling and saw Rushton on the ground and someone else about 30 feet away.
Rushton asked him to call 911 and died at the hospital soon after with stab wounds to his chest, stomach and leg.
Investigators spoke with witnesses and used surveillance video to identify James as a suspect, and they found a knife in his tent.
Court records did not explain a motive for Rushton’s death.
Rushton’s mother, Karen Rushton, wrote the court a victim-impact statement in March.
“I no longer have a first born child,” the letter said. “Once a mother always a mother.”
She described some of the financial challenges of raising Rushton’s 7-year-old son. Senior housing doesn’t allow grandchildren, for example, and she said finding a job in her 70s has been difficult.
“LaMont was really trying to get his life in order so he could raise his son after getting custody of him,” she wrote.
Rushton’s aunt, Sally Manukia, told reporters outside court in 2018 that her nephew struggled with homelessness. He had recently told her he wanted his son back. He was considering working as a fisherman in Alaska to earn a living, she said.
“He loved everybody,” she said of Rushton. “I couldn’t imagine him doing anything to deserve this.”
