Tacoma man fatally shot person who fought his brother. Now he’s headed to prison
The Tacoma man who fatally shot a 56-year-old man outside a club on South Tacoma Way when the shooter intervened in a physical confrontation involving his brother has been sentenced to 18 years in prison.
Joice Duane Williams pleaded guilty to much-reduced charges of two counts of third-degree assault and unlawful possession of a firearm as part of a plea bargain amid disputed evidence of self-defense.
His defense attorney argued in court documents that surveillance video showed the victim, Reginald Taylor, was armed with a knife, and that the defendant’s brother was stabbed during the May 8, 2022 incident. Only after Taylor continued to advance on the brothers, according to the defense, did Williams pull a handgun and shoot Taylor once.
Prosecutors — who originally charged Williams with first- and second-degree murder and second-degree assault — said no witnesses saw a knife. A Pierce County Superior Court judge wrote in an October order that the video was not definitive as to whether Taylor was armed as the defense asserted. A knife was never recovered.
Superior Court Judge Susan Adams sentenced Williams Feb. 10, giving him prison terms beyond the standard sentencing range for each offense. She ordered Williams to serve time for each conviction consecutively rather than tolling at the same time. That was in line with recommendations agreed upon by prosecutors and the defense.
Williams was given five years for assaulting Taylor, three years for assaulting his friend — by pointing a gun at him — and 10 years for unlawfully possessing a firearm.
Taylor’s aunt wrote in a victim-impact statement that her nephew was a “source of life” to those who knew him, and one of his greatest passions was music as a DJ. Taylor was a father to six children.
“His death has left a void in our family,” the aunt wrote. “The pain of losing him in such a violent way was something we live with each and every day.”
In a letter to the court, Williams, 49, expressed “profound remorse” for Taylor’s death and the harm caused to his family, according to his defense attorney, Emily Gause.
“This is not a situation I ever wanted to happen,” Williams wrote. “It is very emotional. I have sat in jail for the past 40 months playing it over and over in my mind for how it may have gone differently.”
Self-defense claims complicated case
A guilty plea avoided risks for Williams and prosecutors.
Had the defendant gone to trial on the murder charges and been convicted, he would have faced a mandatory punishment of life in prison without parole under Washington’s “three strikes law.” Williams was convicted of first-degree burglary in 2012 and second-degree manslaughter in 2002, both of which are “strike” offenses.
Prosecutors said they had concerns about disproving Williams’ claims of self-defense and defense of others beyond a reasonable doubt.
“While the State feels that there is a valid argument supported by evidence to disprove the defense, that evidence is very much subject to interpretation by the jurors,” deputy prosecuting attorney Brad Hashimoto wrote in a court filing asking the court to accept the amended charges.
Hashimoto said Williams’ brother would have testified that he was stabbed by Taylor, and evidence would have been presented that the brother went to the hospital the day after the incident to be treated for a small cut in his side. Hashimoto said prosecutors would have made points to attack the brother’s credibility, but given the circumstances and the state’s interpretation of the totality of the evidence, they were concerned about disproving the defenses.
Gause wrote in a sentencing memorandum that the incident was a fast-moving, chaotic encounter initiated and escalated by Taylor. She said Williams acted under a perceived threat and that his capacity to regulate his response was impaired by trauma and psychological injury.
“The people who know Joice the best, know that he is not a person who seeks out conflict and tries to de-escalate situations, which is exactly what he tried to do on the night of this incident,” Gause wrote.
Confrontation began over racial slur
The incident occurred in the 5400 block of South Tacoma Way, outside a building for a motorcycle club. According to charging documents, Taylor and a friend intended to attend an “after hours” party at the building, but they were denied entry because it was a members-only night.
Gause said the families of Taylor and Williams’ brother were longtime friends, and there was no prior animosity between them. That night, she said Williams was there to be his brother’s ride home. Gause said that an eyewitness described how moments before the confrontation, Taylor and Williams’ brother appeared as though they might embrace rather than fight.
The interaction changed when Taylor directed racial slurs and explicit threats toward Williams’ brother, according to Gause. Taylor’s friend also told police the argument began over the use of a racial slur, charging documents show. According to court documents, Taylor was Black, as is Williams and his brother.
Gause said Williams’ brother initially walked away, but Taylor followed him and continued to yell and act aggressively. That’s when surveillance video showed Williams run toward the group. Gause said it showed him trying to separate the men and calm the situation.
Taylor then produced a knife, according to Gause. Williams stepped to the side against a wall, Gause wrote in her sentencing memorandum, and his brother was stabbed when he approached Taylor for what he believed was a mutual fistfight.
Williams and his brother began to retreat. Gause said Taylor charged forward with the knife, and he was within a few feet of Williams when the defendant pulled a gun and fired. Gause said Taylor fell to the ground and that video showed a silver object was visible in his hand.
Gause said multiple people moved toward Taylor’s body before police arrived. She claimed a frame-by-frame review of the video showed the victim’s friend bent down and retrieved an object consistent with the knife previously visible in Taylor’s hand. She said he was trying to conceal the fact that his friend had been armed.
A witness told police the shooter ran to a Jeep Cherokee, which sped away.
In other news out of Superior Court
Murder charges dismissed for second time over competency
Murder charges brought against a man accused of strangling his 80-year-old grandfather to death in his Frederickson home have been dismissed for a second time because the defendant was found mentally incompetent to stand trial.
Antonio Ray Perez, 32, was arrested and charged in April 2022 with unlawful imprisonment and first- and second-degree murder in the killing of his grandfather, Raymond Leroy Plattner.
Judge Grant Blinn first dismissed those charges in January 2024 after Perez’s competency to stand trial was questioned, and three terms of inpatient treatment at Western State Hospital failed to restore his mental competency. Perez was then committed indefinitely to the state psychiatric hospital.
After charges were refiled in March 2025, questions about Perez’s mental competency came up again, and the issue went to a bench trial in November. Judge Karena Kirkendoll found that the defense established by a preponderance of evidence that Perez was not competent, and that he was a danger to others.
Kirkendoll ordered Perez to another 90 days of inpatient treatment at Western State Hospital.
A psychological evaluation dated Jan. 26 diagnosed Perez with delusional disorder, persecutory type and unspecified personality disorder. The state evaluator gave the opinion that Perez lacks the capacity to assist in his own defense.
The evaluator also said there was no reasonable likelihood Perez’s symptoms of mental illness would improve with more medication or treatment, so another period of competency restoration wasn’t recommended.
Judge Stanley Rumbaugh dismissed Perez’s charges Feb. 13 and ordered him to be evaluated for civil commitment.
Prosecutors refiled charges against Perez in March 2025 after he was released from the state hospital to an intensive behavioral health treatment facility in Olympia.
The News Tribune previously reported that Perez went to Supreme Living, and in February 2025 he was accused of violating multiple conditions of his release. Court records show he was evicted near the end of that month, and he was arrested on a bench warrant in March 2025.
Perez was self-sufficient at Supreme Living, according to court records, and he had the ability to appropriately respond to social cues. Records state he still experienced delusions about the charged crime, reportedly stating he killed his grandfather in self-defense because he was being poisoned in a conspiracy plot involving Puyallup police.
