After smoking together, he pulled a pistol and shot him for no reason. Here’s his sentence
A 23-year-old man has been sentenced for fatally shooting a friend in Parkland in an incident that was reportedly unprovoked and prompted an hours-long SWAT standoff weeks after the crime.
Cayden Lee Osley recently pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in Pierce County Superior Court and was sentenced to more than 13 years in prison, court records show.
The shooting occurred inside a parked vehicle on Jan. 1, 2022, in the Parkland residential area of South Ainsworth Avenue and Wheeler Street. The driver of the vehicle, who was a witness to the shooting, told police that he, Osley and the victim had parked and smoked heroin and methamphetamine, according to charging papers.
The witness also told authorities that the shooting was unprovoked. The victim, 40-year-old Sorin Lay, was sitting in the backseat behind the driver when he offered to get Osley a job before Osley, who was in the front passenger seat, turned with a semi-automatic pistol and shot Lay once in the right jaw, charging papers said.
Lay, whose first name is also spelled “Surin” in at least one court document and on social media, was pronounced dead shortly afterward.
“(The witness) told detectives that he asked the defendant why he shot the victim, and the defendant replied, ‘I thought I was supposed to,’” charging papers said.
Osley was ultimately taken into custody nearly three weeks later, following a standoff with authorities at a home in Spanaway.
He pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced for Lay’s killing on Nov. 29, court records show. As part of a plea bargain, the original charges he faced — first-degree murder and second-degree assault — were dismissed.
It was unlikely that the original charges could be proved beyond a reasonable doubt at trial, according to a prosecutor’s statement filed in court.
The 13-year sentence, which is to be followed by three years of community custody, will run concurrently to a five-month sentence for a separate conviction: Osley also pleaded guilty on Nov. 29 to third-degree assault, stemming from a November 2021 incident in which he stabbed his girlfriend in the stomach and arm as she tried to break up with him, court records show.
The standard sentencing range, which factors in criminal history, for Osley’s second-degree murder conviction was eleven to 19 years, according to court records. Lay’s family had sought the maximum punishment.
“My brother was a very kind man and did not deserve what had happen to him,” Simontha Lay, the victim’s sister, wrote in a statement filed with the court. “Cayden (Osley) cold heartedly took someone very dear to us (away) from us.”
Sorin Lay was a single parent, doing the best he could to raise his daughter, according to his sister.
In a separate court statement, Sorin Lay’s daughter, Kailinna Lay — who referred to her father as “Surin” — wrote that her mother died when she was just two years old. Her father had pushed for her to finish high school and, when she did, he wasn’t around to see it.
“He didn’t get to witness me graduate nor cheer me on my big day. My last year of high school was the hardest,” she wrote. “I wasn’t supposed to lose my dad, my dad was supposed to be here. I didn’t even get a chance to give back to him for everything he has done for me.”
Osley was credited for 678 days of time served. He has a previous conviction in Pierce County for vehicle prowling, court records show.
