Stakes higher for the alleged driver in Lakewood police killings after appeals decision
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Coverage of Lakewood police killer’s alleged getaway driver
Dorcus Dewayne Allen, 51, is accused of driving Maurice Clemmons to and from a Parkland coffee shop in 2009, where Clemmons fatally shot four Lakewood police officers. Here is The News Tribune and The Olympian’s coverage of Allen’s case.
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Prosecutors won an appeal to pursue an aggravating sentencing factor against the alleged getaway driver of the man who killed four Lakewood police officers in 2009.
As Dorcus Dewayne Allen’s retrial approaches, the state argued that seeking the aggravating factor that the crime was knowingly committed against law enforcement didn’t amount to double jeopardy.
A three judge panel of Division II of the Washington State Court of Appeals agreed Tuesday, saying that a Pierce County judge was wrong to dismiss the factor.
Allen, also known as Darcus, has not pleaded guilty and faces retrial for four counts of first-degree murder.
The appellate ruling means prosecutors can pursue an exceptional sentence above Allen’s standard range if jurors convict the 50-year-old at retrial and find the state has proven the aggravator.
He’s accused of driving Maurice Clemmons to and from the Parkland coffee shop where Clemmons fatally shot Sgt. Mark Renninger and officers Tina Griswold, Gregory Richards and Ronald Owens in November 2009.
A Seattle police officer shot and killed Clemmons following a manhunt.
“While preparing for the retrial, the trial court in Oct. 2019 ruled that it was double jeopardy for this office to pursue the aggravating factors again,” the Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement Wednesday. “We appealed, arguing that the jury in the original trial did find the aggravating factors and so we should be allowed to pursue them again in the retrial.”
The Division II decision means they’ll be able to.
“Our office is anxious to get this case to trial. It is now approaching a dozen years since the four Lakewood officers were brutally murdered while meeting in a coffee shop,” Pierce County Prosecutor Mary Robnett said in the statement. “We look forward to presenting the facts of that day to a jury.”
The appeals
Jurors at Allen’s first trial in 2011 convicted him of four counts of first-degree murder. He was sentenced to 420 years in prison, but the state Supreme Court found there was prosecutorial misconduct during closing arguments in the case and vacated the convictions in 2015.
Because the jury at the first trial already chose not to convict Allen of four counts of aggravated first-degree murder, the high court also said in 2018 that he can’t be retried for aggravated first-degree murder in the case, which would mean a mandatory sentence of life without parole.
Jurors in the first trial did find the state had proven the aggravating sentencing factor that the crime was knowingly committed against police officers.
Allen argued that he shouldn’t be retried for that either, and Superior Court Judge Frank Cuthbertson granted his motion to strike it in 2019.
“Allen cannot be retried as to the elements and circumstances because to do so would violate Allen II (the 2018 Supreme Court decision), Article I, Section 9 of the Washington State Constitution, the 5th Amendment of the United States Constitution, Double Jeopardy and collateral estoppel clauses of the United States and Washington State Constitutions,” the order said.
The state appealed and the Division II panel reversed that decision, noting the state law for aggravated first-degree murder against a law enforcement officer is not the same as the one for the aggravating sentencing factor that a crime was committed against an officer, though they have some similar wording.
“... because RCW 10.95.020(1) as charged to the jury is not the same offense as nor identical to RCW 9.94A.535(3)(v), we hold that the trial court erred in granting the motion to strike RCW 9.94A.535(3)(v) from the charging document because the State is not barred from prosecution under double jeopardy or collateral estoppel,” Judge Lisa Worswick wrote for the panel.
The opinion was also signed by judges Linda Lee and Lisa Sutton.
This story was originally published July 28, 2021 at 2:01 PM.
