Woman pleads guilty to helping boyfriend in killing at Tacoma homeless encampment
The girlfriend of the man who killed someone at a Tacoma homeless encampment in 2022 pleaded guilty to acting as an accomplice to the crime.
Ivory Lynch-Johnson, 24, pleaded guilty to second-degree assault and first-degree rendering criminal assistance at Pierce County Superior Court on Feb. 1 for the fatal shooting that killed 39-year-old Michael Perdue. The homicide occurred inside a tent in the 1200 block of Puyallup Avenue, court records show.
Lynch-Johnson admitted to driving the getaway car used to transport her boyfriend, Jarmal Packard, 25, to and from the encampment on Nov. 21, 2022. She also said in her guilty-plea statement that she helped her boyfriend elude police in the weeks after the shooting, court records show.
Judge Shelly Speir-Moss sentenced Lynch-Johnson to 14 months in prison. Charges of first-degree murder, second-degree murder and first-degree robbery were dropped as part of the plea agreement, court records show.
Packard pleaded guilty on Jan. 18 to second-degree murder and second-degree assault for the murder. He was sentenced at Pierce County Superior Court on the same day to 20 years in prison, court records show.
On the night of the killing, Packard had been seeking oxycodone he believed Perdue owed to him. Packard approached Perdue in the tent that he shared with his girlfriend, demanding “the blues.” Packard was armed with a pistol that had a green laser attached to it, court records show.
Witnesses said that Packard took most of Perdue’s clothing as well as a silver chain and ring. He gave Perdue and others who were in the tent three days to come up with $2,500. Packard then kicked a man in the tent several times in the stomach before he shot Perdue in the chest, prosecutors wrote.
A witness said that when Packard went to the tent, there was a woman with him. The witness did not see her but could hear her voice. Packard told the woman, “Babe, don’t let anyone come out of this tent,” prosecutors wrote.
Through their investigation, police identified Lynch-Johnson as the driver of a Volvo captured on nearby surveillance footage. The Volvo was seen fleeing the scene with Packard after the shooting, court records show.
Police later found Packard and Lynch-Johnson illegally living inside a vacant home in Spokane. During a search of their vehicle, police discovered guns, ammunition, narcotics and multiple cell phones, documents show.
Some of the ammunition matched the shell casing that police located at the scene of the homicide in Tacoma the month prior, court records show.
