Teens plead guilty to murdering Tacoma pot shop employee in armed-robbery spree
It’s an all too familiar story. Two promising boys who overcame tragedies and traumas in their own lives quickly find themselves in the wrong crowd, suddenly taking risks and robbing stores for validation from the wrong people.
And in the split second of a trigger squeeze, the violence that had so deeply affected them is repeated, creating fresh waves of grief and emotional wounds that tear through multiple communities and families.
It all played out Friday afternoon in a small Pierce County Superior courtroom packed with people, where Marshon Jones, 17, and Montrell Hatfield, 18, were to be sentenced for a series of armed robberies around the Puget Sound area. Those crimes culminated in the March 19, 2022 robbery of a Tacoma cannabis dispensary where an employee, Jordan Brown, was fatally shot.
Jones was 15 when he shot Brown that night. His accomplice, Montrell Hatfield, was 16 at the time and was fighting with the victim when the fatal shot was fired. After both pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and multiple counts of first-degree robbery, the two were sentenced to 25 years in state custody.
Hearing from relatives of both Brown and the boys responsible for his death, Judge Joseph Evans was told of the twin tragedies Jones and Hatfield’s actions had caused. They had ended the life of a beloved son, brother and friend, and in doing so they had set themselves up to be stripped of their freedoms and removed from their families for longer than they had been alive.
“These last two years has taken everything I have,” Brown’s father, Dennis, told the court. “Every last thing I had in my life is gone.”
The punishment Pierce County Superior Court Judge Evans imposed was in line with what prosecutors and defense lawyers had agreed to recommend. Attorneys on both sides suggested that Jones and Hatfield should receive a sentence below the standard range for defendants in similar cases — 44 to 55 years — because their immaturity at the time of the crimes diminished their culpability.
Investigators tied Hatfield and Jones to at least 10 armed robberies in Pierce, King and Thurston counties between Feb. 9 and April 18, 2022. On Friday, Hatfield pleaded guilty to first-degree robbery for eight of those robberies and Jones pleaded guilty to first-degree robbery for seven.
At times speaking through tears, Dennis Brown described for the judge the son he had lost and all that was missing from the world without him. Jordan Brown was a talented musician and artist, the father said. His sister, Dr. Marisa Brown, said her brother had a love for anime and an ability to create worlds in his head that always impressed her.
Jordan Brown is originally from Shoreline, Washington, and he was living with his father in Gig Harbor at the time of his death.
Every night when the two were living together, the father said he’d be falling asleep on his recliner, and Jordan would come in and shake him on the shoulder. His son would tell him he’d fallen asleep, and that he’d turned the television off 30 minutes ago. He would say he wasn’t tired, but Jordan would lift him from his seat, and Dennis would go upstairs to bed.
So three years ago, Dennis Brown said, his son bought him a recliner with an array of buttons, one of which could lift him to his feet. He recalled the joy his son had shaking him awake one night and pushing the button.
“By God I wish I had one more of those,” he said.
The father repeated the phrase as he spoke of the other mundane moments that were lost along with his son. Like the sound of laughter and conversation from his son talking with his siblings and cousins at Thanksgiving dinner, and the meals Jordan would cook for him one night a week that Dennis began calling “no-meat Thursdays.” Gone were yearly visits to the University of Washington — where Dennis played football and ran track — for homecoming.
Of Jones and Hatfield, Dennis Brown said he hoped and prayed that they change their lives, but he said he wanted the judge to send a clear message that this violence cannot continue.
“Another young Black man is dead. So give us justice, please, your honor.”
Defendants cut ankle monitors before deadly robbery
The deadly March 19, 2022, robbery at the World of Weed cannabis dispensary in Tacoma’s Eastside neighborhood occurred just days after Hatfield and Jones cut off their ankle monitors while on home detention, according to court records. The teens had been arrested in February following a robbery at a pawn shop in Federal Way where they made off with tens of thousands of dollars in cash plus jewelry, but they continued to pull off brazen stick-ups at marijuana dispensaries.
Hatfield and Jones’ escape from home detention wasn’t reported until March 16, according to court records, when warrants were issued for their arrest. By then, they had robbed three dispensaries in Tacoma and Puyallup, including Mary Mart on Sixth Avenue, entering with handguns drawn just before 5:30 p.m. March 15. One customer described to police fearing for his life after Hatfield or Jones pointed the weapon at him and fired a gunshot into the store.
Three days later, the teenagers were inside World of Weed, 3202 E. Portland Ave., wearing mostly black with hoodies cinched tightly over their faces. Hatfield gave orders to everyone inside — “This is an armed robbery, get down on the ground” — and then fired a warning shot into the ceiling.
Hatfield and Jones gave employees trash bags to fill with cash. Witnesses later told police one employee, Brown, tossed back the bag and took a step back with his hands in the air. Hatfield and Brown started fighting behind the counter and fell to the ground, records state. Surveillance video showed Jones move closer to the counter, extend his pistol and fire, striking Brown in the neck.
Meanwhile, a third suspect who wasn’t identified by law enforcement stood lookout outside. Hatfield and Jones ran from the store, and the three drove off in a silver sedan.
World of Weed was closed for several weeks after the robbery. On Facebook, the dispensary said Brown’s death was a profound loss, and he was a valued and highly-respected employee with a “winning smile.” A fundraiser started by the business on behalf of Brown’s father raised more than $26,000.
Investigators noticed similarities between surveillance footage of the World of Weed robbery and other robberies in Pierce and King counties. The MO was the same. Two suspects would enter armed with handguns while a third stayed outside as a lookout. Inside, one would fire a gunshot into the ceiling, and the other would cover the employees and customers. Then the suspects would hand out garbage bags for money and cannabis products before fleeing to a vehicle.
One of the suspects in the robberies had a noticeable limp, and Hatfield’s gait was the same in the World of Weed robbery, with surveillance footage showing a prosthetic leg beneath his pants. His defense attorney wrote in court records that he was born with a condition that prevented his right leg from fully developing, so he’s always used a prosthetic leg.
Jones was arrested April 11 outside the Regional Justice Center in Kent. Hatfield was arrested April 19. According to court records, during a robbery at Forbidden Cannabis Club in Lacey, an employee put a tracking beacon in the suspect’s bag.
Lacey and Seattle police tracked the device to a Kent residence, and Hatfield was found nearby.
Testimony describes difficult childhoods
Hatfield entered the courtroom in a blue dress shirt with a tie and black slacks. Jones wore a white dress shirt, a tie and black pants. Defendants who haven’t been released on bail typically appear for sentencing in jail uniforms, but the court granted a defense motion asking that the teens be allowed to appear in civilian clothes.
Attorneys for Hatfield and Jones argued Friday morning that it would be dehumanizing for the young people to appear in jail clothing, and images of them broadcast in news media would feed into pernicious stereotypes about young Black men.
During the hearing, attorneys John Meske and Mary K. High, representing Jones and Hatfield, described the challenges both boys faced throughout their childhoods.
Jones was born to a 16-year-old mother who was murdered before he was 3 years old, and he was subsequently adopted by a loving aunt and uncle, according to Meske’s sentencing memorandum. Despite being diagnosed with ADHD at age 5, Jones did well in school and was involved in sports. He began to struggle more after the death of his grandfather and his uncle at age 13, and when the coronavirus pandemic hit, Jones moved in with his grandparents in South Seattle. That too was a loving home, but Jones had less supervision, and soon he had new friends who were encouraging him to take part in crimes.
Meske said Jones was introduced to two men who recruited 15 children to engage in thefts and robberies of stores. The adults provided the guns, Meske said, and the money the youngsters stole was given to the adults. Jones made attempts to get out, the attorney said, but there was pressure to keep him under the adults’ control.
“My client Marshon was under the spell of these adults and this group of kids,” Meske said.
Jones’ stepfather addressed the court, telling the judge that his son had great remorse for what he’d done, and asking that he be granted a second chance.
Hatfield had his own struggles. Growing up using a prosthetic leg to get around, he was often bullied for his physical differences, his attorney, High, wrote in court filings. Growing up in low-income housing in Kent, he was routinely exposed to neighborhood violence and gang activity, and he meets diagnostic criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder.
Gangs influenced his thought processes and behaviors, High wrote, and the boy has described being “jumped” into a gang at age 12. By age 16, Hatfield was not regularly living at home, instead living with gang members who he felt accepted him more than his family. In March 2022, High wrote that Hatfield became caught up in “group think” that spiraled out of control.
Hatfield’s mother spoke during the sentencing hearing, first offering her condolences to Brown’s family. She said her son wasn’t the type of person he’d been portrayed to be, and she believed that he’d been manipulated by older men. She said Hatfield should still take responsibility for his actions, but she asked that the judge consider the mitigating circumstances at hand.
Two volunteers from Kids are Kids also spoke during the hearing. Outside the courtroom, Emijah Smith told The News Tribune it’s a statewide organization that works with all families touched by the criminal justice system and advocates for abolishing laws that auto-decline children and teenagers into adult court. Because Hatfield was 16 when he was charged with a serious violent offense, his case was automatically moved from juvenile to adult court. Jones, who was 15, had lengthy hearings over whether he would be prosecuted as an adult or a juvenile.
Jones, Hatfield apologize to victim’s family
After more than an hour of testimony, Jones and Hatfield were given a chance to address the court. Jones said he was deeply sorry for his actions, and the bad decisions he’d made were not who he was as a person. He said he was focused on school, and he was going to have a future to show others it was possible to overcome these obstacles.
“Those things I did were wrong, and I’m sorry,” Jones said.
Hatfield said he wanted to say he was sorry to Brown’s family, and he would work to become a better person.
Before handing down his sentence, Evans said it wasn’t lost on him that Hatfield and Jones haven’t had easy paths, and they’d repeatedly suffered losses and tragedies that were part of the reason they were here today.
But ultimately, the judge told the teens, they had choices, and there were moments when they could have turned back. They went back to the same behavior after they were first arrested in Federal Way, and they didn’t stop after Brown was murdered.
“Both of you one day will be back in society,” Evans said. “Don’t let it be lost on you that that’s not true about Mr. Brown. That’s something you both have to carry with you the rest of your life.”
Outside of the courtroom, Brown’s father told The News Tribune he would have asked for a longer sentence, but no punishment Evans could impose would be adequate justice for his son. Justice, he said, would be an eye for an eye.
This story was originally published February 23, 2024 at 3:52 PM.
