‘Prolific’ fentanyl dealer, who sold drugs from a notorious Tacoma motel, is sentenced
A Tacoma man was sentenced to more than five years in prison after pleading guilty to drug and gun charges following his federal arrest last year for selling counterfeit oxycodone pills containing fentanyl out of a notoriously crime-stricken motel on South Hosmer Street.
After his arrest in September, Peter Darnell King, 24, pleaded guilty in April to two felony counts: possession of controlled substances with intent to distribute and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking offense, according to U.S. District court records.
Four other counts were dismissed as part of a plea deal, court records show. He was sentenced to five years, six months in prison Wednesday, with three years of subsequent supervised release, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
King’s apprehension stemmed from a series of undercover operations last summer at the shuttered Econo Lodge by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, in conjunction with the Tacoma Police Department. The motel since has been converted to low-income housing.
“Peter King contributed to the addiction and violence plaguing the most dangerous street in Tacoma by regularly dealing fentanyl out of his hotel room on Hosmer Street,” federal prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memo July 19. “He was arrested three times within 11 days, each time with fentanyl and a gun, and each time he immediately returned to trafficking a deadly drug when he was released from custody.”
A News Tribune investigation last year found that South Hosmer Street was the city’s deadliest, with five reported homicides within a three-block stretch over an eight-month period. The Econo Lodge was an epicenter for danger, prompting at least some employees to carry mace and Tasers for protection.
Authorities said that King, a documented gang member who went by “Solo,” was a frequent resident of the motel after it closed in March 2022. They said they observed King selling fentanyl out of the largely boarded-up establishment.
The charges he pleaded guilty to were connected to an arrest one year ago — the second of three in a short span — when a Lakewood police officer contacted King at a gas station on Tacoma Mall Boulevard for a missing license plate. King, who the officer found did not have a valid driver’s license, became agitated and tried to resist arrest, according to the sentencing memo.
Officers found a bag with 131 counterfeit oxycodone pills containing fentanyl on King and the same loaded 9 mm handgun that was found on him during an arrest the previous day before being released to his friend, court records show. The total amount of fentanyl King distributed or intended to distribute during the course of ATF’s investigation was between 160 and 280 grams, according to the plea agreement.
Prosecutors had recommended a nine-year sentence, saying that it was reasonable given the circumstances.
“King did have a very difficult childhood and clearly suffers from substance abuse issues,” prosecutors wrote in their memo, adding that the sentencing was just below guidelines. “Still, King was a prolific fentanyl dealer on Hosmer Street, which was identified by King himself as one of the highest crime areas in Tacoma.”
King’s defense, which called the nine-year sentence recommendation “outrageous,” had sought five years followed by lengthy supervision that included drug and mental health treatment, court records show.
King admitted to dealing drugs, although in small quantities relative to other cases before the federal court, according to a sentencing memo filed on July 17 from King’s defense, which described his upbringing as tumultuous.
“Peter suffers from an extraordinarily traumatic childhood: He was abandoned while an infant by his mother and suffered extraordinary physical and emotional abuse from his father as a child,” the memo said.
The memo noted King’s mental health issues and his parents’ struggles with addiction as well as his own. Citing reporting by The News Tribune, it also claimed that King had carried a gun for personal safety and had been targeted by aggressive policing tactics, with local authorities under pressure to clean up the South Hosmer Street corridor.
“Again, he does not offer this as an excuse for his own behavior, but as something the Court may consider in weighing the sentence,” the memo said.
Chief U.S. District Judge David G. Estudillo presided over the case.
“Controlled substances, including fentanyl, as in this case, have had a huge impact on the community,” Estudillo said during Wednesday’s sentencing, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office. “Quite literally, they are killing people.”
This story was originally published July 26, 2023 at 2:50 PM.
