‘Never-ending nightmare’: Man sentenced for fatally shooting girlfriend’s ex in Tacoma
A man convicted of fatally shooting his girlfriend’s ex-boyfriend in Tacoma was sentenced Friday to 40 years in prison.
Andrew Pointer, 39, was sentenced in Pierce County Superior Court for the 2019 death of Lawrence Andre Jeffries, 38. A jury found the defendant guilty last month of first-degree murder and unlawful possession of a firearm.
The murder occurred early the morning of Aug. 4. According to court documents, Pointer lured his girlfriend and Jeffries to a home in Tacoma’s Eastside neighborhood, promising he only wanted to talk.
Pointer and Jeffries had been in a fight less than three hours earlier. Prosecutors said Pointer was “beat down” and that Jeffries also hit the defendant’s son, knocking him down.
Shortly after Jeffries and the girlfriend got to the home, Pointer arrived in a vehicle. Outside, Pointer shot Jeffries in the chest and then ran him over.
Emotions ran high during Friday’s hearing. Relatives of the deceased described the “never-ending nightmare” they have had to live with since his death. Jeffries’ fiancee, 37-year-old Christina Feeder, told the court she didn’t know how she would explain to her young children what happened.
She brought a family portrait to the hearing that, on other days, hangs in her living room. It shows her and Jeffries back-to-back, smiling and posing with their children.
“How do you softly say to a 4-year-old that somebody killed your daddy?” Feeder said.
From behind the attorney’s tables, Pointer’s lawyer, Myles Johnson, said the case had been his own nightmare. He said he believed his client was not guilty and called the trial a “miscarriage of justice.” He said he didn’t know how much longer he would keep working as a defense attorney.
“I don’t believe there’s any more justice, I simply do not,” Johnson said. “It will leave me scratching my head until I draw my last breath.”
In handing down a mid-range sentence, Superior Court Judge James Orlando said he believed alcohol use fueled what happened the night of Jeffries’ killing.
“But a jury of 12 people sat and listened to the evidence,” Orlando said. “And I think the most key piece of evidence was you returning and being in the back of that property, really for no good reason.”
In the defense’s account of the shooting, Pointer said that night he was moving his belongings out of the residence he shared with his girlfriend. He apparently left but returned for a forgotten wallet and arrived at the same time as Jeffries and others.
During his five-week trial, Pointer argued he shot Jeffries in self-defense and claimed that he wrestled a gun from the victim before shooting him. Prosecutors showed at trial it was Pointer who brought a gun to the home, and that he shot Jeffries from seven feet away.
According to prosecutors and court documents, the murder stemmed from a long-time disagreement over how Pointer should treat his girlfriend, whom Jeffries used to date and had a daughter with.
According to court documents, animosity had been growing between the two men.
The month before, Jeffries told the defendant’s girlfriend that Pointer had been flirting with someone else, which prosecutors said made the woman angry at Pointer.
When Pointer addressed the court, he apologized for his behavior at the end of his trial, when he threw an object toward prosecutors and had to be removed from the courtroom.
Pointer also said he thought alcohol use is what led to the deadly outcome of that night. He said he wished the whole situation could have been avoided.
“I wish it was me that got killed that night,” Pointer said. “Because if it was me that got killed that night, you guys would be on this side, and my family would be on that side.”
This story was originally published April 22, 2022 at 2:22 PM.
