Fatal shooting at Tacoma motel stemmed from missing prescription drugs, records say
A man shot to death in a Tacoma motel room was killed because an acquaintance believed he had stolen prescription pills, according to court documents.
Pierce County prosecutors on Friday charged Joshue Tamblin, 33, with second-degree murder and first-degree unlawful possession of a firearm for Tuesday’s death of Joshua Moore-Hughes.
He pleaded not guilty at arraignment Friday and Superior Court Judge Matthew Thomas set bail at $2 million.
Moore-Hughes, 32, died of a single gunshot wound to the chest, according to the Medical Examiner’s Office.
Charging papers give this account:
Police were called about 9:50 a.m. for a disturbance at a motel in the 8800 block of South Hosmer Street. While there, they heard a gunshot and ran to a room to find a group of people crowded outside the door.
Inside on the ground was Moore-Hughes, unconscious and bleeding. He later died at a hospital.
Witnesses were hesitant to speak with detectives, records say, but they told police at least 10 people were in the room at the time of the shooting. One said there was an argument “over drugs or money that came up missing in the room,” according to charging papers.
Motel employees said they believed someone was selling drugs in the rented room because of the number of people going in and out.
The man who rented the motel room discovered 30 Percocet pills were missing and told everyone in the room they weren’t allowed to leave until the prescription drugs were found, prosecutors wrote in charging papers.
He then called Tamblin to come over and help him sort things out with the missing drugs.
At one point, the man who rented the room allegedly accused Moore-Hughes of stealing the pills and Moore-Hughes said he was offended by the accusation.
Tamblin told “the victim that he should ‘watch his mouth, and the victim responded by saying, ‘Watch my mouth!?,’” records say. “The defendant then fired one shot at the victim from the semi-automatic handgun he was holding.”
A single 9 mm shell casing was found within eight feet from where witnesses said Tamblin was sitting in the room.
On Thursday evening, investigators tracked Tamblin to another Tacoma hotel where he was staying and took him into custody.
He admitted being in the room when Moore-Hughes was shot but denied pulling the trigger.
Tamblin said he didn’t see who fired the shot but fled the scene when he heard the gunshot, records say.
He has prior convictions for first-degree robbery, burglary and drug-related charges, Pierce County court records show.
Also on Friday, prosecutors charged Tamblin with two counts of first-degree assault and two counts of drive-by shooting for an unrelated March 19 incident.
In that case, Tamblin is accused of shooting at two men who asked him to remove a truck from their property because Tamblin allegedly had not paid them for work done on the vehicle. His pleaded not guilty at arraignment in that case, and bail in that matter was set at $500,000.
This story was originally published December 4, 2020 at 1:45 PM.
