‘Stole his precious life.’ Victim’s family speaks out at Pierce County murder sentencing
Two people found guilty of murder in the fatal shooting of a 46-year-old man in Puyallup were sentenced Tuesday to decades in prison.
Pierce County prosecutors said Brandon Neil Rudolph, 48, was acting on the unfounded and “meth-fueled” paranoia of another person when he shot at two people sitting in an SUV, killing Joseph Beckley. Prosecutors said Katie Holman, 46, was the conduit between Rudolph and that paranoid person, and the Oct. 20, 2021, murder in a restaurant parking lot would not have happened without her.
Rudolph was sentenced to 41 years in prison. Holman received 20 years.
According to court documents, Beckley was in the parking lot with another person to pick up methamphetamine. He’d given a close friend of Holman’s $200 the night before to buy the drugs. While he waited in the parking lot, Holman’s friend became paranoid about how long he’d been there. She called and texted several people, including Holman, to ask if she should be concerned about Beckley.
Deputy prosecuting attorney Claire Vitikainen said in court Tuesday that Holman facilitated the murder by communicating between Rudolph and the woman Beckley had paid for the drugs. In court filings, the attorney wrote that Holman remained in contact with the woman while she and Rudolph made their way to Puyallup and that Holman knew what was coming.
About 1:16 a.m., Rudolph and Holman drove into the parking lot in the 3200 block of East Main Avenue. Surveillance video showed a Suzuki Grand Vitara SUV slow down in front of Beckley’s Jeep Cherokee as Rudolph fired five shots, the last of which fatally struck Beckley.
The woman who Beckley had paid for drugs called Rudolph after she saw police cruisers in the parking lot and asked him what he had done, according to court records. He reportedly replied that he “did it for her,” stating that he loved her and that she should never feel in danger.
Both Rudolph and Holman fled to Arizona after the shooting. Rudolph was arrested for an unrelated matter Feb. 10, 2022, in El Mirage, northwest of Phoenix. He was charged with murder in Pierce County later that month. Holman was arrested in Maricopa County, Arizona in August 2023.
A jury deliberated for about two days before convicting both defendants of second-degree murder and second-degree assault after a three-week trial that began with opening statements Oct. 17. Rudolph, who was convicted of 11 felonies in Pierce and Thurston counties between 1999 and 2020, also was convicted of unlawful possession of a firearm.
Jurors also convicted the defendants of first-degree manslaughter. That offense was vacated at sentencing due to issues of double jeopardy.
The defendants were sentenced separately before Judge Edmund Murphy. Holman went first, then sat in the jury box with her attorney, crying and dabbing her eyes with a tissue while Rudolph’s hearing went on.
A friend of Beckley as well as his aunt and his mother spoke on his behalf during Rudolph’s sentencing. The friend, Leslie Wilson, told the judge not to be fooled by Holman’s tears, calling her a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
“She’s obviously been in the game and doing things that she shouldn’t have been for a long time, but she got caught,” Wilson said.
Wilson told the judge Rudolph couldn’t be rehabilitated, and she believed that if he is released again, the court would see more murders from him.
Beckley’s aunt, Roseanne Tilden, said that Rudolph had hurt many people, but if she stayed angry with him, she’d be letting him control her, too, and she wouldn’t give him that. She said she felt sorry for him.
“You must have had a pretty terrible childhood that you would take a man’s life for $200,” Tilden said. “That’s how low you have descended. Hopefully after the sentencing, you will have a very long time to contemplate if that $200 was worth it.”
The victim’s mother, Kathleen Beckley, spoke of the shock she felt seeing her son in a morgue and how his “horrific” killing had devastated her life. She said her son was a compassionate and humble man who would help her and others whenever he could, including fixing her car or driving her where she needed to go.
The mother said the defendants needed to be held accountable.
“Brandon shot and killed my wonderful son, stole his precious life from him, me and the world,” Kathleen Beckley said. “I wish to God I could have spent more time with Joey. His young, precious life was stolen from him so fast and unexpectedly.”
One of Rudolph’s attorneys from the Department of Assigned Counsel, Ryan Hogaboam, then briefly laid out his argument for a shorter sentence of about 28 years in prison, below the standard range.
Hogaboam said in Rudolph’s theory of the case, he acted in self defense.
According to court records, the defendant testified that when he drove past Beckley’s vehicle, he shot at the occupants because they were pointing guns at him, and he feared that they were going to shoot him. Murphy said in court that claim was not corroborated by anyone else, even though there was another person in the car with the victim.
Hogaboam acknowledged that the jury rejected Rudolph’s self-defense claim, but he said they also rejected the theory that Rudolph acted with premeditated intent to cause Beckley’s death because they did not find him guilty of first-degree murder. The defense attorney said the court could consider the failed defense as a mitigating factor for purposes of sentencing and impose a punishment below the standard range.
When Murphy asked Rudolph if he’d like to speak before he gave him his sentence, the defendant shook his head and said no.
Murphy said there wasn’t sufficient evidence to justify a sentence below the standard range. He noted Rudolph’s extensive criminal history and said the man had only been out of prison for seven months before Beckley’s death. The judge said he didn’t see a basis for anything but a high-end punishment.
