2 sentenced for death of woman fatally shot in her Tacoma home following drug deal
Two people charged for the death of a Tacoma woman who was shot in her home during a drug deal were sentenced Friday, according to court records.
Mitchell Tyler Nichols and Tabby Lynne Thomas previously pleaded guilty for the death of 28-year-old Kelsea Carlson.
Superior Court Judge Matthew Thomas gave Nichols 29 years, 10 months and Thomas 11 years, six months.
Nichols, 36, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and first-degree burglary.
Thomas, 23, pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter, second-degree assault, and conspiracy to deliver a controlled substance.
The shooter, 29-year-old Douglas William Dunlap, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and first-degree assault. Judge James Orlando sentenced him to 29 years in prison earlier this year.
Carlson was shot April 3, 2020, in the 1400 block of South Union Street. She died from her injuries. Her fiance was shot in the leg and was released from the hospital following surgery, The News Tribune reported.
Charging papers made these allegations about what happened:
Police responded to a 911 call about the shooting and found Carlson dead inside the home.
She allegedly bought half a pound of methamphetamine and used her father’s social media account to find someone who wanted to buy drugs.
She and Thomas exchanged text messages, and Thomas agreed to go to Carlson’s home.
Thomas, Nichols and Dunlap arrived, allegedly planning to rip Carlson off. When Nichols allegedly said something to the effect of: “Something’s not right,” Dunlap pulled his gun and fired.
Carlson’s family wrote the court ahead of Dunlap’s sentencing that her father was a big part of her life when she was about 20 years old. He taught her to deal drugs, and she had pulled away from other loved ones, their letter said.
Carlson moved out of state when she became pregnant and focused on her sobriety, the family told the court, and was a loving mother when her young daughter was born.
She got a job and ultimately became a manager at the business. That’s where she met her fiance, and she moved back to the Tacoma area with him when he got a job offer.
She reconnected with her father, and when he “ended up in jail for all his bad deeds in the drug world, he would call on Kelsea to take whatever means to get him out,” the family wrote. “Giving her explicit directions on what she needed to do. That leads us all here today.”
They told the court Carlson planned to be a veterinary technician.
The five-foot, maybe 115 pound woman wouldn’t even kill spiders, they wrote.
“What kind of threat could she have been to this large man with a gun in his hand?” the letter said.
Deputy prosecutor Sunni Young Ko wrote in a sentencing memorandum that, while Dunlap was the shooter, Nichols: “assisted by planning and orchestrating the robbery, by communicating with the victim pretending to be Thomas, by making sure Thomas accompanied them to commit the robbery, by including Dunlap in the robbery, by using Dunlap’s gun to commit the robbery, by grabbing the bag of dope even after the shots were fired, by fleeing the victims’ residence with the bag of dope in his hand, by splitting the proceeds with Dunlap and using the drug proceeds to purchase a vehicle.”
Asked about Thomas’ case, defense attorney Brett Purtzer told The News Tribune she is a “young girl who should be at this point in time starting her life, and unfortunately she’s going to prison.”
Her sentence is the low end of her standard range.
She’d been in a treatment facility trying to get off drugs when she met Nichols, the attorney said.
“She was completely taken advantage of by these other two guys,” he said. “… It’s a horrible situation.”
