He sought 19-year sentence for killing Tacoma boy, 2. He got 100 years instead
Catherine Colley shouldn’t have been back in a Pierce County courtroom Friday. Almost exactly 12 years ago, she stood before a judge and forgave her grandson’s killer, a 19-year-old man who had admitted to the atrocious crime of raping and murdering his girlfriend’s 2-year-old son.
At the time, Jake Musga’s face was still pockmarked with acne. Colley said he had a conscience, too, and that he’d told the court he knew what he had done was wrong.
Musga, now 31, has changed since then. His face matured, and his head was shaved clean save for a patch of hair under his chin. Gone, too, was his acceptance of responsibility for the March 2013 death of Chayson Colley in a Tacoma apartment.
At the end of Friday’s hearing, Superior Court Judge Michael Schwartz imposed double Musga’s original sentence, agreeing that prosecutors’ recommendation of 100 years to life in prison was not clearly excessive in light of a jury’s verdicts and Musga’s acts.
In 2022, Musga was allowed to withdraw his guilty plea to first-degree felony murder and first-degree rape of a child. His murder charge was predicated on first-degree rape of a child, and on appeal, prosecutors conceded that the law did not allow for that. Musga’s convictions were subsequently vacated, and his case moved toward a new trial this year.
Musga had been serving 50 years to life in prison for Chayson’s murder. With his convictions tossed, the families whose lives he had devastated could no longer simply forget about him. Chayson’s aunt, Leah Colley, said in court Friday that she was thrust right back into a battle she never asked for, and that the new trial forced her and her family to relive the trauma.
On April 16, a jury found Musga guilty of 12 offenses, including murder, child rape and assault, furnishing liquor to a minor and criminal mistreatment. Due to double jeopardy, all but two were vacated at sentencing, homicide by abuse and first-degree rape of a child.
At sentencing Friday, Catherine Colley faced Musga directly, shaming him for withdrawing his guilty plea and “pridefully” declining a plea deal from prosecutors. She told him he’d become a jailhouse attorney and used his energy and brilliance to do despicable things. She said the energy should have been put into doing something good with his life.
“You could have taken that plea deal and gone back to prison,” Catherine Colley said. “I hope they double, double, triple the amount of time you were originally given.”
Deputy prosecuting attorney Megan Winder said a standard range sentence would not account for the gravity of Musga’s crime. The jury had made special verdicts in the case finding that the crime was aggravated by Musga’s deliberate cruelty and the particular vulnerability of the victim. He had also abused a position of trust as the child’s caregiver and demonstrated an egregious lack of remorse.
On March 30, 2013, Tacoma firefighters were called to the Commencement Terrace apartment complex, 29 St. Helens Ave., at about 4 a.m. after a witness found Musga crying and holding Chayson, who was covered with bruises, according to court records.
Musga’s demeanor changed after Chayson was brought to an ambulance, Winder said. She said a witness testified that he was shocked by Musga’s callousness as he went from crying to calm and spoke about the death.
“He nonchalantly said, ‘It sucks it had to be a child instead of an old person that died,’ despite the fact that Chayson was still alive at that point,” Winder said in court.
Musga had been looking after Chayson while the boy’s mother, Laura Colley, worked. The two had met in a substance-abuse rehabilitation program the previous year and later moved in together. On March 29, 2013, she left her son with Musga overnight for the first time so she could go out to celebrate her birthday.
Winder said Chayson suffered not one isolated act of violence, but a prolonged pattern of assault by Musga. The toddler had bruises across nearly every surface of his body, massive abdominal hemorrhages from blunt-force trauma, a severe head injury consistent with multiple impacts and other wounds.
“These injuries do not reflect impulse or panic,” Winder said. “They reflect intentional torture and conscious decision to inflict suffering upon Chayson Colley.”
Musga, who represented himself for sentencing, asked for an exceptional sentence below the standard range of 19 years and one month, arguing that the mitigating qualities of youth, including an upbringing marred by drug addiction, childhood trauma and the difficult circumstances of his environment had contributed to the events of the night Chayson was killed.
Schwartz declined to find that Chayson’s death was a rash or impulsive act caused in part by his youthfulness and being intoxicated.
Musga’s story about what happened to Chayson has changed over the years. In 2013, he told investigators he “lost it” after Chayson urinated on him while changing his diaper. Schwartz said now he was continuing to downplay his actions by claiming he accidentally flung Chayson, who was playing in a suitcase that slipped out of his hands.
“This refusal to accept responsibility, and his lack of remorse, gives the court little hope that rehabilitation is in the cards for Mr. Musga, or that he is capable of it,” Schwartz said.
