He ran over a friend south of Tacoma, killing him after an argument. Here’s his sentence
A 50-year-old man who deliberately ran over a friend, killing him on a street south of Tacoma after an argument and then fleeing the scene, has been sentenced to six-and-a-half years in prison.
Jose Manuel Colon-Ortega pleaded guilty Friday to first-degree manslaughter in the July 24, 2021 death of Tanielu Utu, 41. According to court documents, Colon-Ortega went to the area of 106th Street and Ainsworth Avenue in Parkland to work on or pick up a motor home.
An argument broke out between Utu, Colon-Ortega and the defendant’s then-girlfriend. Colon-Ortega drove away in a Honda Accord then made a quick U-turn and drove at Utu, striking him and reportedly sending him flying 10-15 feet into the air.
Utu’s girlfriend told Pierce County Sheriff’s Department deputies that the argument was about one of the men owing the other $20, according to charging papers, but prosecutors wrote in a more recent trial brief that the argument was about parking.
Prosecutors originally charged Colon-Ortega with first- and second-degree murder. Deputy prosecuting attorney Joe Scovel noted in a court filing asking the court to amend the charge to manslaughter that there were evidence problems that would have made a conviction on the original charge doubtful. Scovel also wrote that the primary witnesses are transient and had been unresponsive to subpoena.
The punishment Superior Court Judge Edmund Murphy imposed, 78 months in prison, was at the low end of the standard sentencing range for defendants tried in similar cases, which is 78 to 102 months.
Colon-Ortega had no prior criminal convictions, according to court records. In his guilty-plea statement, he wrote that he ran over Utu while the man had what he later learned was a BB gun replica of a pistol pointed at his then-girlfriend’s head while she was seated in her car.
Utu was found dead near the 10400 block of Ainsworth Avenue South with the replica handgun reportedly tucked into his waistband. Records state several people called 911 to report that a driver appeared to have deliberately hit a pedestrian and sped away. Tire marks went from the northbound lanes of Ainsworth to the west shoulder near the victim’s body.
Colon-Ortega’s attorney from the Department of Assigned Counsel, Eric Trujillo, wrote in his trial brief that Utu was apparently angry about where his client had parked his car, and Utu made several threats to kill Colon-Ortega and burn the Honda.
Two days after the fatal hit-and-run, the defendant’s mother reported the Honda stolen. Lakewood police found it that day in a marshy area where the car was crashed into a tree. Colon-Ortega was arrested four months later in Cowlitz County on unrelated charges connected to a residential burglary.
Colon-Ortega asserted that the incident was a case of justifiable homicide in the defense of others, according to his defense attorney. The case went to trial in October last year, but it was declared a mistrial before the attorneys made their opening statements.
Adam Faber, a spokesperson for the Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, said the defense obtained a psychological evaluation, and the court found the defendant wasn’t mentally competent to continue with the trial. He said prosecutors requested that a competency restoration order be issued. The same day, Judge Grant Blinn ordered that Colon-Ortega receive 90 days of inpatient treatment at Western State Hospital.
That evaluation included a diagnosis from a licensed psychologist who found Colon-Ortega met criteria for unspecified schizophrenia spectrum and other psychotic disorder.
After the period of inpatient treatment, a Department of Social and Health Services psychologist in April gave Colon-Ortega a similar diagnosis but found him more likely than not capable of understanding the nature of the proceedings against him and assisting in his own defense.
