Man was fatally shot after miles-long road rage started in Tacoma. Now 1 is sentenced
A man who pleaded guilty to manslaughter in a fatal road-rage shooting that began at an Interstate 5 interchange in Tacoma and ended in Kitsap County has been sentenced to 11 years in prison.
Mark Keith Smith pleaded guilty Oct. 21 to first-degree manslaughter and second-degree assault with a deadly weapon sentencing enhancement in Kitsap Superior Court for the July 22, 2023 incident.
He and Patrick H. Weems, 68, antagonized each other as they drove onto state Route 16 in Tacoma, according to charging documents, and the two drove aggressively until they pulled off the highway and stopped in a parking lot. Smith, who was 26 years old at the time, got out of his Toyota 4Runner with a handgun, and Weems exited his Chrysler sedan with a baseball bat.
Deputy prosecuting attorney Barb Dennis told The News Tribune video evidence showed there was somewhat of a struggle over the gun before Weems was shot.
Smith fled the scene. A Kitsap County sheriff’s deputy found him sometime later on a road near state Route 3, a Washington State Patrol spokesperson said at the time. Charging documents alleged he had hidden a backpack and a 9 mm pistol near some bushes, and he was trying to scrape a sticker that read “Hoonigan” off his vehicle, a term associated with car racing.
Weems, of University Place, was hospitalized with a gunshot wound to the head. He died the next day. According to his obituary, he worked as a tool and dye maker for the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton, and he was a 1973 graduate of Franklin Pierce High School.
Prosecutors charged Smith with second-degree murder. Dennis said Oct. 23 the outcome of the case was heavily negotiated, and she and deputy prosecuting attorney Sarah Jahns didn’t believe they would have been able to prove that Smith intended to kill Weems if the case had gone to trial on that charge.
Smith initially told police that Weems tried to grab his gun. A Washington State Patrol investigator reported that Smith said that he swung the gun around in self defense, and he must have had his finger on the trigger because it went off.
Dennis said prosecutors didn’t discount Smith’s account of the incident or entirely take it to heart. She said it takes two to escalate something to that level.
“I think that they both were aggressors towards one another, initially, while they were still in their vehicles,” Dennis said. “Obviously once they got out of the car, you know, Mr. Smith escalated it to another level.”
Smith pleaded guilty to recklessly causing Weems’ death, and prosecutors and the defense agreed to recommend to Judge Jennifer Forbes that the punishment should be at the high end of the standard sentencing range, which was 95 to 137 months. Smith remained in custody for the duration of the case.
Dennis said Weems’ family wasn’t happy with the length of the sentence. She said the courtroom was packed with people during the hearing.
The defendant’s attorney, Bryan Hershman, said Oct. 23 he believed both the victim and the defendant were good people. He said Smith was extremely remorseful and didn’t mean for this to happen. He said Smith had no prior criminal history.
“This just didn’t need to happen,” Hershman said. “And it took two people to get here, and just, had either one of them just said enough, you know what I mean? Tragic loss of life of a nice gentleman.”
Hershman said Smith was driving to a beach to have a picnic with his wife and child when he got on the road, and Weems was driving to work at the shipyard.
According to charging documents, the incident began when Smith merged into an exit lane on Interstate 5. He told investigators he pulled behind Weems’ car when the man made an obscene gesture at him and Smith responded by flashing his lights.
Smith alleged that Weems tried to run him off state Route 16 several times while they went west into Kitsap County. The State Patrol received reports at about 1:49 p.m. of two vehicles driving aggressively on the highway near Mullenix Road. The two vehicles made a U-turn into the eastbound lanes of Route 16 in Gorst and then pulled over.
There were some contested facts in the case, according to Hershman. He called it a convergence of tragic dynamics and said due to the direction Smith was traveling, he was sure it looked to Weems that he was being followed.
“There are independent witnesses who say my client was the aggressor driving, and there are independent witnesses who would say the opposite,” the defense attorney said.
This story was originally published October 24, 2024 at 5:30 AM.
