Woman pleads guilty to Tacoma coffee stand robbery that left barista beaten, shot
A woman pleaded guilty this week to a 2017 robbery at a Tacoma coffee stand that left a 20-year-old barista brutally beaten and shot after the victim refused to hand over money.
Dominique Reyes, 26, entered her guilty plea for first-degree robbery Wednesday in Pierce County Superior Court. According to court filings, the guilty plea comes as part of a plea deal, with prosecution and defense agreeing to a recommended sentence of 10 years in prison.
The standard sentencing range for such cases is between six years, five months in prison and eight years, six months in prison, not including sentencing enhancements such as use of a deadly weapon.
Reyes was released until her sentencing after she posted a $50,000 bail. Her hearing is scheduled for May 4.
In Reyes’ statement filed Wednesday, she admitted to the robbery in order to take advantage of the deal offered by the state. Records show she has seven prior felony convictions in King County.
Reyes was one of two people charged in the July 31, 2017, robbery of a coffee stand in the 1900 block of Marine View Drive in Northeast Tacoma. Also accused was Rigoberto Alvarado Jr., who was allegedly waiting for Reyes in a Ford Mustang outside the stand during the robbery.
Only one woman was working that evening when an armed woman broke through the stand’s window and assaulted the barista for five minutes while trying to get her to open the cash register and safe.
The barista refused, and she was hit over 50 times, according to the declaration for determination of probable cause. The victim hit her attacker with a cup and then was shot in the leg. Surveillance video showed the assailant continuing to beat the woman after shooting her, then taking cash from the tip jar before fleeing.
No one was immediately arrested. Reyes was charged with the robbery three years later while she was serving a prison sentence. The woman’s ex-boyfriend, who was killed in Tacoma in July 2018, allegedly told police Reyes and Alvarado were responsible for a string of coffee stand robberies in the summer of 2017.
DNA evidence had also tied Reyes and Alvarado to the robbery. Police responding to the robbery found the getaway car crashed and abandoned less than a mile from the scene. Witnesses reported seeing two people running into a wooded area, and a police dog helped law enforcement find a bloodied, pink tank top that forensic testing linked to Reyes.
Records say Alvarado’s fingerprints were found on the Ford Mustang’s window and on a liquor bottle inside.
Alvarado has yet to be arraigned in this case. He was charged in April 2020 in a fatal shooting at an Auburn auto-repair shop. Pierce County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office spokesperson Adam Faber said Alvarado is currently being held at the King County Correctional Facility, and that he will be prosecuted in Pierce County once those proceedings wrap up.
