‘Truly dangerous’ man charged in Tacoma machete attack. He avoided life sentence in 2014
A Pierce County man who repeatedly avoided significant prison sentences after episodes of violence over the last three decades, including fatally shooting an unarmed person, is now suspected of attacking a family friend with a machete.
Court documents show 59-year-old Kevin Lee Estes avoided a life sentence in 2014 by striking a plea deal with the Prosecuting Attorney’s Office in an assault case where he was accused of threatening to kill a woman and cutting a man during an argument. His initial sentence of life in prison after a jury trial was thrown out on appeal.
Estes was released from prison under that case in November 2020 without probation terms, according to the state Department of Corrections.
On Thursday, Pierce County Superior Court Commissioner Craig Adams ordered Estes jailed in lieu of $1 million bail during his arraignment for first-degree assault in the alleged machete attack. A not guilty plea was entered on his behalf. Court documents indicate Estes has been homeless for four years and last lived at an address in Spanaway.
Estes’ criminal record includes a second-degree assault conviction as a minor, a first-degree manslaughter conviction in 1990 and various assault cases between 1998 and 2014. Court documents show he brandished a knife during a 1985 probation hearing.
Prosecuting Attorney’s Office spokesperson Adam Faber told The News Tribune that prosecutors filed a persistent offender notice in Estes’ most recent assault case, which tells him he will automatically be sentenced to life without parole if convicted as charged.
MACHETE ATTACK
The victim of the Feb. 15 machete attack told police Estes was helping her move into an RV parked along the 7800 block of South Trafton Street in Tacoma, according to charging papers. The woman said she accused Estes of taking her phone and took his keys. Then Estes got in her face, and she shoved him away.
Estes then picked up his machete from the bed and struck the woman in the head, charging papers allege. The woman told police she ducked to avoid a second swing, but Estes followed her outside and hit her three or four more times.
Another man threw a brick at Estes’ head to stop the attack, according to charging documents. The woman drove herself to a hospital downtown with cuts to her head, right leg and right hand, one of which nearly severed her thumb. Medical providers later diagnosed her with a skull fracture.
Responding Tacoma police surrounded the RV where Estes had retreated and found him inside on the floor, charging documents show. Officers found the bloody machete wrapped in a blanket in a loft area of the RV.
The woman told police Estes had recently checked out of a local mental health-care facility, according to charging documents.
1990 FATAL SHOOTING
Former Pierce County Superior Court Judge Robert H. Peterson called Estes a “truly dangerous man” who acted with “deliberate cruelty” upon sentencing him to an exceptional sentence of five years and eight months in prison for the 1990 killing. Estes was found to have shot a man sitting on a couch in the kneecaps, arm and head, but he claimed self-defense and was acquitted of first-degree murder at trial.
Estes was working as the manager of a Parkland apartment building when he shot a reportedly unruly man who had been asked to leave the building, according to The News Tribune archives. Prosecutors called it a “premeditated, cold-blooded murder.’‘
Two weeks before the killing, a Pierce County District Court judge ordered Estes to serve two years in jail in a misdemeanor case and said he feared Estes would go on to kill. A higher-ranking Superior Court judge freed Estes on appeal, according to The News Tribune archives. The Superior Court judge determined the lower judge exceeded his sentencing authority.
2014 CONVICTION REVERSED
In the 2014 case, the state Court of Appeals threw out Estes’ life sentence citing ineffective counsel because Estes’ attorney didn’t understand the implications of deadly weapon enhancements amounting to a strike offense or seek a plea deal. The state Supreme Court affirmed the appellate decision in 2017 and ordered a new trial.
Estes’ new defense attorney Sunni Ko, a then-former Pierce County deputy prosecutor who has since returned to that role, struck a plea deal with former Prosecuting Attorney Mark Lindquist’s office three months later to avoid another trial. Estes agreed to plead guilty to lesser charges without the weapons enhancements that mandated a life sentence.
Instead of life behind bars, Estes agreed to six years and four months in prison after time served and no community supervision terms upon release. His sentencing form reflects standards of 36 months for serious violent offenses and 18 months for other violent offenses.
“I do not believe I am guilty of these offenses,” Estes wrote in entering what’s known as an Alford plea. “However, I have discussed the evidence with my attorney and I believe that there is a substantial likelihood I may be found guilty of these charges, along with a weapons enhancement at trial.”
