Tacoma store clerk allegedly killed homeless woman. Here’s why charges were dropped
A former store clerk who worked in downtown Tacoma and allegedly killed a homeless woman with a sword for shoplifting has been found mentally incompetent to stand trial, and murder charges have been dismissed.
Abdelhakim Choubabi, 54, lacks the capacity to understand the nature of the charges he’s accused of or assist in his own defense due to a mental disease or defect, Pierce County Superior Court Judge Grant Blinn decided Monday. The court ordered him to undergo a mental evaluation when he was charged with first-degree murder in May 2022 for allegedly stabbing 37-year-old Odessa Easterlin outside of the Candy Market convenience store at the corner of South 9th and Market streets.
The defendant will remain at Western State Hospital while civil commitment proceedings begin, according to court records. The dismissal allows prosecutors to refile charges if the defendant is found competent at a later date.
Choubabi’s first evaluation from June last year determined he met diagnostic criteria for schizophrenia, a disorder he’d reportedly been diagnosed with as far back as 2003, around the time he immigrated to the United States from Morocco. A psychologist found there was a “reasonable likelihood” that treatment could help him get to the point where he could proceed to trial, but according to court records, two 90-day stays and a six-month stay at Western State Hospital failed to restore his mental competency.
In the days after Easterlin was killed, a memorial of flowers, balloons and prayer candles formed on the sidewalk near the Candy Market, where she often slept at the time. On social media, some railed against the dangers faced by people living without housing in Tacoma, particularly Black women, and others decried the homicide as a consequence of the city criminalizing homelessness.
Still others online said it was a sign of a need to more adequately address mental health issues. Choubabi has a long history of being mentally unwell. He was found incompetent to stand trial in 2004 for allegedly stabbing his pregnant wife and a friend in Tacoma, and he was found guilty of the assault four years later when his condition improved during a civil commitment.
Washington state has faced a rising demand for pre-trial mental health services in recent years. According to previous reporting from The News Tribune, the number of court orders for inpatient evaluations and competency restoration services increased 37 percent from fiscal year 2021 to 2022, and the roughly 2,400 referrals in fiscal year 2022 represented more than twice the number from nearly a decade earlier.
Officials are struggling to keep up. On Wednesday, Pierce County joined 21 other counties in a lawsuit filed in Superior Court against the Department of Social and Health Services. The suit alleges that since July 13, DSHS has refused to admit patients in a similar situation as Choubabi to facilities such as Western State Hospital for civil commitment evaluations.
Choubabi’s attorney from the Department of Assigned Counsel, Mary Kay High, told The News Tribune she didn’t foresee having issues getting her client admitted to Western State Hospital for civil commitment. She said most cases that have run into roadblocks with the psychiatric facility or DSHS have involved nonviolent crimes.
Man allegedly stabbed woman while she sat
According to charging documents, Tacoma Police Department officers were called at about 7:48 p.m. on April 30, 2022 to 767 Market Street, where a woman was reportedly being assaulted. Fire department personnel also responded and informed police that the woman had been stabbed and was dead. She was found about 20 feet from the convenience store.
Witnesses told police the man who stabbed Easterlin had left the area in a car driven by another person. While officers were on scene, Choubabi returned on foot and turned himself in. Detectives later interviewed him at police headquarters through a smartphone app that connected them with an Arabic-language interpreter.
Choubabi told detectives the incident began when the victim stole sunglasses and condoms from the store, according to the probable cause document. He said he followed her out to grab the items back, and the woman hit him in the back of the head. The defendant said he then went back inside to retrieve a sword. Choubabi allegedly said he approached the woman, who was sitting on the ground, then swung the sword at her face before stabbing her in the stomach.
Detectives served a search warrant on the store and found a large Samurai-type sword in a sheath on the ground below the cash register.
Almost a month after the homicide, friends and family of Easterlin gathered at Shiloh Baptist Church in Tacoma’s Hilltop neighborhood to mourn her and celebrate her life. More than 20 people stood to speak about Easterlin’s infectious attitude toward life, memories of dancing and singing with her and missing her smile.
Several people spoke about their own struggles with living on the streets, and how Easterlin took them in and cared for them. Speakers said she made sure they ate and shared even when she had little.
Defendant’s history of mental health issues
Judge Blinn’s decision on Choubabi’s mental competency was made based on a forensic psychological evaluation dated Aug. 18 and the agreement of prosecutors and the defendant’s attorney from the Department of Assigned Counsel, according to court records.
In the defendant’s most recent evaluation, Patricia McCormick, a licensed psychologist for DSHS, wrote that Choubabi displayed variable improvement throughout his six months at Western State, but his progression has plateaued, and he still has symptoms of a severe and persistent mental illness. Specifically, McCormick said the defendant’s paranoid delusions, impaired cognitive functioning and possible auditory hallucinations would all likely interfere with his ability to proceed to trial.
Choubabi has a well-documented history of receiving psychiatric treatment since at least 2003, according to the evaluation. He was committed to Western State Hospital between 2004 and 2007 for competency issues in his assault case, and he reportedly received outpatient psychiatric treatment until early 2022 through Greater Lakes Mental Health Center, a correctional facility and UnitedHealthcare Community.
According to the report, his paranoid delusions included that the government was following him and trying to kill him, and that he was being religiously persecuted. When his third period of competency restoration began, he reported believing that the television was talking to him and/or about him.
McCormick wrote that Choubabi has reported a history of hallucinations commanding him to engage in violence, most recently toward himself. In March, he reportedly tried to stab himself in the chest with a piece of metal from his eyeglasses, threw himself into a window on another occasion and made statements about wanting to kill himself.
The psychologist noted that Choubabi tested positive for fentanyl when he was arrested in this case, and she said while consuming mind-altering drugs may cause or exacerbate his psychiatric symptoms, it’s unlikely his current issues stem entirely from substance use given how long he has stayed in a secure setting with restricted access to substances.
This story was originally published August 25, 2023 at 5:00 AM.
