Man accused of killing 4 in Tacoma found mentally competent. Will trial come this year?
A man charged with killing four people in a mass shooting in Tacoma’s Salishan neighborhood in 2021 has been declared fit for trial after twice being found mentally incompetent. Prosecutors say a trial could start as early as February.
The court and the defendant’s attorneys have found reason to doubt Maleke Pate’s state of mind several times since he was arrested for the Oct. 21, 2021, shooting. According to court records, he has undergone five psychological evaluations and two 90-day terms of inpatient treatment at Western State Hospital.
And while evaluators say he displayed signs of genuine psychotic symptoms in 2021 and when he was first admitted to the state’s psychiatric hospital in 2022, his most recent evaluation dated Dec. 20 found it likely Pate was exaggerating his illness and reporting symptoms not typical of genuine mental illness. In an interview with a psychologist, he reported hearing “hundreds” of voices at all times and experiencing hallucinations of ghosts and aliens. The psychologist wrote in her report that despite Pate’s statements, he never appeared to be responding to internal stimuli in the interview.
Pate, 24, also reported having memory problems, but he performed well on memory tests. The psychologist wrote that he often asserted he had seizures, but medical staff at Western State Hospital never observed them. He was given a 25-item screening interview meant to help assess the likelihood an individual is feigning psychiatric illness, and the psychologist said his score was “highly suggestive” that he was.
He was declared competent Dec. 27 in Pierce County Superior Court based on the report of the psychologist, an employee of the Department of Social and Health Services.
Pate has pleaded not guilty to four counts of aggravated first-degree murder for the mass shooting, which ended the lives of three people from the same family and a fourth who was a victim’s girlfriend. Nothing in court records has so far pointed to a motive, and Pate appears to have virtually no connection to his alleged victims beyond attending fifth grade with one. If convicted, he faces multiple life sentences.
The victims of the shooting were Maria Nunez, 42; her son, Emery Iese, 19: Nunez’s brother, Raymond Williams, 22; and Williams’ girlfriend, Natasha Brincefield, 22. All were shot in or near a vehicle outside a home in the 4200 block of East Everett Street.
Prosecutors wrote in pre-trial motions filed in October that Pate “executed” the four people without provocation, and when one victim, Emery Iese, tried to flee, the alleged gunman chased him and shot him when he fell to the ground.
Nunez’s husband, Lauvale Iese, has continued to attend Pate’s court dates. Outside a courtroom Thursday, he told The News Tribune he was glad the process of determining the man’s competency is over, and that Pate is now sitting in Pierce County Jail rather than staying at Western State Hospital.
“I wish he would just own up to it,” Iese said.
A jury trial is scheduled for Feb. 29, and a Pierce County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office spokesperson said its attorneys would be “ready to go.” Pate’s attorney from the Department of Assigned Counsel, Travis Currie, said Friday that he also expected the case to proceed to trial. He wasn’t sure if issues regarding Pate’s competency would come up again.
Pate’s Thursday court date was to determine whether a Tacoma Police Department detective would be allowed to photograph the defendant’s tattoos. Judge Grant Blinn granted the request. According to prosecutors’ motion filed in court records, neighborhood surveillance cameras captured a man walking or running away from the crime scene that appeared to show tattoos on his left forearm.
Photographs of Pate’s tattoos would presumably help investigators confirm whether the person captured on video is him, but other evidence also ties him to the shooting. A search warrant executed at his home less than a half-mile from the scene turned up the blue shorts and blue do-rag the person was wearing on the video.
Police also found a 9 mm pistol hidden in a suitcase in Pate’s bedroom, and records state that a crime lab determined it was the gun used in the shooting by comparing spent casings recovered at the scene. The Prosecuting Attorney’s office said DNA analysis that will be needed at trial is also being conducted.
