Tacoma man who evaded cops after raping stranger in her home sentenced to prison
A man who broke into an 80-year-old woman’s house in Tacoma in 2020, raped her and then evaded law enforcement for years before police cracked the case was sentenced Friday to 15 years to life in prison.
Boyd Earl Hatch, 66, pleaded guilty in February to first-degree rape and first-degree burglary with sexual motivation. According to court records, he entered a single-story West End house through an open sliding-glass door armed with a butter knife, picked up a woman sitting on a couch — a stranger to him — and pushed her into a bedroom while she struggled.
Neighbors later reported not hearing any sounds of a disturbance.
During the two-hour attack, Hatch left the bedroom at some point, allowing the woman to hide the butter knife he’d brought with him. When he returned, according to court records, he drank from a bottle of vodka. He took $40 from the victim’s wallet when he left and smoked a cigarette outside.
A DNA sample from the knife — along with a grocery receipt and the victim’s sexual-assault evidence kit — later helped detectives identify Hatch as the assailant. He was charged in March 2024 and arrested the next month on a bench warrant.
The sentence Pierce County Superior Court Judge Karena Kirkendoll imposed was at the high end of the standard sentencing range. It was an indeterminate sentence, meaning Hatch must serve a minimum of 15 years, 4 months before he is eligible to petition the Indeterminate Sentence Review Board for release.
Hatch, who had no prior criminal convictions, will be required to register as a sex offender. He also was ordered to undergo a psychosexual evaluation, complete any recommended treatment and not have contact with the victim for life.
Two of the victim’s nieces wrote victim-impact statements to the court, stating that their aunt’s life was forever changed after Hatch assaulted her. She rarely leaves her house, she stopped driving and she lives in fear of his potential return, one niece said.
The woman’s health and mental well-being also declined, according to the impact statements. The nieces said she suffers from PTSD and was diagnosed with a moderate and progressive form of dementia.
Before the incident, the nieces said their aunt had a zest for life.
“She enjoyed riding motorcycles with her late husband, and enjoyed taking trips, camping and spending time with friends and family,” one niece wrote.
In a pre-sentence investigation, Hatch reported a recent and past history of heavy alcohol use. According to the report, he said at the time of this incident he likely consumed “almost two fifths of vodka.” He recalled going to alcohol treatment at a facility in Portland 15 to 20 years ago.
Hatch was born in Florida and raised in Tacoma, according to a forensic psychological evaluation completed in the case. He reported he studied for a year at Washington State University in 1978 and the University of Washington in 1979 but grew bored of college and stopped going. Hatch said he retired from a 25-year career in the computer-tech industry at age 52.
In other news out of Superior Court:
Man charged in Lakewood murder pleads guilty to lesser crime
A 41-year-old man accused of being an accomplice to murder in a fatal robbery at a Lakewood gas station won’t face further jail time after prosecutors said further investigation convinced them the man’s involvement was different than it first appeared.
Brandon Kahumoku Cajigal pleaded guilty April 3 to second-degree theft, and Judge Rebecca Reeder sentenced him the same day to 90 days in jail. He’s already served more than two years in jail.
Two other defendants in the case have been convicted of murder for the Dec. 18, 2022 killing of 33-year-old Carl Wayne White. According to court records, White was shot while in his Dodge Ram at a gas station at 11122 Steele St. S.
A surveillance video in the store’s parking lot allegedly showed a gray sedan park close to the truck shortly after 5 a.m. The driver was allegedly Cajigal, and he got in White’s truck for about 11 minutes before two men approached the vehicle from both sides and opened its doors.
Minutes later, Cajigal is seen on video hopping on his leg on the passenger’s side and appears injured. Another man on that side of the truck, identified by investigators as William Roy McMullen, then walked around to the driver’s side and fired a handgun multiple times toward the open driver’s door.
McMullen then drove off in the victim’s Ram with the man he’d arrived with, leaving Cajigal and White behind.
McMullen was found guilty in a jury trial March 18 of first- and second-degree murder, first-degree assault, first-degree robbery and first-degree unlawful possession of a firearm. A sentencing date was set for May 16.
Man withdraws guilty plea for murder in Tacoma shooting, pleads guilty to assault
A man who pleaded guilty to murder and other offenses for his part in the fatal shooting of a man searching for his ex-girlfriend near the Tacoma Tideflats withdrew his guilty plea and instead admitted to second-degree assault.
Lawrence Edward Jerry III, 39, was sentenced April 1 to two years, five months in prison. He’s already served more than a year in jail.
The sentence Judge Rebecca Reeder imposed was at the high end of the standard sentencing range. According to court records, Jerry has a long history of misdemeanor criminal convictions. Between 2005 and 2015, he was convicted of 17 misdemeanors, including criminal trespassing, resisting arrest, third-degree theft and reckless driving.
Jerry was one of two people charged in the Oct. 1, 2022 killing of 37-year-old Nicholas Ulugalu.
Kenny Lamont Haymore, 51, was convicted in a jury trial in March of first-degree manslaughter, two counts of first-degree assault and other offenses. According to court records, he shot Ulugalu multiple times after the victim pounded on the door of a motorhome where he believed his ex-girlfriend was overdosing.
Jerry arrived with Haymore outside the motorhome in a truck and then left with him after Ulugalu was shot, according to court records.
A spokesperson for the Prosecuting Attorney’s Office said Jerry was allowed to withdraw his original guilty plea after he testified at Haymore’s trial.
This story was originally published April 9, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
