Man gets max sentence for fatally shooting his ex’s new boyfriend outside Tacoma motel
A Tacoma man had been sentenced to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to manslaughter for killing his ex-girlfriend’s new boyfriend outside a Pacific Avenue motel.
Jesse Romell Henry pleaded guilty in Pierce County Superior Court in July to second-degree manslaughter and first-degree unlawful possession of a firearm in the April 8, 2022, killing of 30-year-old Brian Roberts II.
On Friday, Judge Joseph Evans handed Henry his punishment, the maximum sentence for defendants convicted of manslaughter. According to court records, Henry, 31, has 10 prior felony convictions in Pierce County for crimes including burglary, theft and failure to register as a sex offender.
Charging documents alleged that a fight between Henry and Roberts occurred two hours before the shooting at Pacific Lodge, a motel in the 8800 block of Pacific Avenue also described as an apartment complex in court records. Roberts was “knocked out” by Henry, and later, Henry allegedly called a manager for the lodging establishment and told him, “If he comes back on the property with my kids, I’m going to kill him.”
The same day, an argument between Roberts and his girlfriend, whom Henry had a child with, led to Roberts following his girlfriend in a car, according to the declaration for determination of probable cause. The girlfriend told Tacoma police Roberts stopped following her when she drove to a police station. Henry and his new girlfriend eventually picked her up and took her to another apartment on South 58th Street before they all returned to Henry’s place at Pacific Lodge Apartments, she said.
After a few minutes, Roberts drove into the parking lot, and Henry confronted him outside with a gun. According to the probable cause document, Henry told his girlfriend and the ex to leave. As they were walking away, the ex reportedly heard three gunshots. The women ran to a manager’s office, and a short time later Henry pulled up in a red Honda, and the three went to Henry’s brother’s apartment.
Police responded to the shooting at about 9:20 p.m., and Roberts was found in the parking lot with a gunshot wound. He was transported to the St. Joseph Medical Center, where he died. The medical examiner later found he died of a shotgun wound.
Roberts was from Spanaway, and according to an obituary, he was a father to three daughters.
Henry was arrested on a bench warrant almost a month after the shooting in Centralia. He was originally charged with first- and second-degree murder but was allowed to plead guilty to a lesser charge as part of a plea agreement. Deputy prosecuting attorney Mark Sanchez noted there were evidence issues and wrote in a court filing that the agreement took into account the risks associated with a jury trial and a “viable self-defense claim.”
The defendant will serve a 29-month sentence for second-degree theft at the same time as his manslaughter sentence. He pleaded guilty to that charge July 13 for stealing cash from a cash register and other items during his first shift as a clerk at a gas station in University Place.
