Man convicted of killing pregnant woman in Tacoma gets new sentence
Chica Webber’s family believes in forgiveness, they told a judge Friday.
“We forgive in our family,” her sister, Danae Poore told the court. “We understand the power of forgiveness.”
They also understand that actions have consequences, she said, and that there are some wounds that time doesn’t heal.
They were there for the resentencing of Rashad Demetrius Babbs, one of the men who fatally shot 21-year-old Webber in the head when she was three months pregnant in 2001 in Tacoma.
Superior Court Judge Gretchen Leanderson gave Babbs a low-end sentence of nearly 47 years, seven months in prison.
The 41-year-old had been serving a sentence of 61 years, two months.
He and 40-year-old Phillip Victor Hicks got new sentencing hearings in the case because of a state Supreme Court decision in 2017 that had implications for how their offender scores are calculated.
Hicks was sentenced to 60 years, eight months in prison at his hearing in 2019, which was four years less than his initial sentence.
Webber was walking with her husband March 22, 2001 on Tacoma’s Hilltop when Babbs and Hicks approached.
When the Webbers refused to buy drugs or give the men money, Babbs and Hicks fired, killing the woman who was three months pregnant and seriously injuring her husband, Jonathan Webber, according to News Tribune archives.
The newlyweds were only carrying eight cents.
Jurors convicted the men of first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder and unlawful gun possession.
Webber’s family told the court her child would have been 20 now. The Webbers also have an older child, they noted, who has grown up without his mother.
Diane McMahan, Webber’s mother, told the court that she didn’t think it’d be fair for Babbs to be released earlier than he was supposed to. She asked the judge not to take off any more time that she had to.
“Babies ain’t supposed to go before their mamas,” she told the judge.
McMahan also said that she can forgive. She told Babbs she was sorry that he has to do his time, but that he caused that, no one else.
Deputy prosecutor Jesse Williams asked the court for a sentence of about 58 years.
“There is senseless and then there is what happened here, which is just on another planet,” he said.
He argued Babbs had a lengthy criminal history, and that he knew what was wrong and what was right.
Loved ones told the court about Babbs’ traumatic upbringing, and his struggles with mental health and substance abuse. They also described his self-improvement while serving his sentence.
Colette Babbs, his sister, told the court her brother was a lost soul, who had been on drugs and didn’t make the right decisions.
She said he’s made changes in his life since then, and that he’s a different person today.
“I know that he is truly, truly sorry,” she said. “... I’m just hoping that everyone can take a moment and maybe reconsider.”
Babbs told the court he felt ashamed for the harm he caused, and that he takes full responsibility for it.
“They didn’t deserve it,” he said.
Babbs said he instantly turned and fired when he heard another shot.
“I reacted off of impulse,” he said.
Hicks filed a declaration with the court that he was the first to shoot, and asked for leniency for Babbs.
Babbs said he suffered neglect during his childhood in a home with domestic violence and had been in a gang.
In prison he’s gotten his GED, become a barber, and done programs about conflict resolution, parenting and other topics. Some programs he’s helped facilitate. He’s also helped counsel other inmates, he said.
He said his growth hasn’t been just for himself. If he can keep another kid out of the courtroom, he said, maybe that’s some amount of justice for the woman he killed.
Defense attorney Jeffrey Ellis argued for a sentence of 25 years, below the standard range. He said his client, who was 21 at the time of the shooting, had a decreased ability to stop and think. He noted the science about how youthful brains develop has evolved in recent years.
“In the presence of a peer and having heard a shot, his brain reacted with the unfortunate ‘instinct’ of a late adolescent who was hypervigilant due to trauma, who was with a peer,” one of his court filings said.
“This wouldn’t have happened but for the first shot,” he told the judge. “... He reacted on instinct.”
Before she handed down the sentence, Leanderson noted Babbs’ criminal history. She also noted his difficult childhood, his struggles with mental health, and his efforts to improve himself while incarcerated.
“You have done a good job of bettering yourself and trying to make a difference,” she said.
She pointed out that he’d been successful in Job Corps, and had been about to start a career in masonry. She wishes he’d continued in that direction, she said.
The judge called his acts against the Webbers heinous and callous.
“There was an impact on the community with what happened that day,” she said.
