Tacoma man shot, killed girlfriend through closet door. Was it murder?
There’s no question that Nathan Mapp shot and killed his girlfriend through a closet door in his Eastside Tacoma home. The couple was in the middle of a dramatic breakup inflamed by stolen money and drugs.
The puzzle was whether 39-year-old Tamrah Dickman’s death was a murder carried out over a pilfered Ziploc bag of cocaine or a justified homicide committed by a man who believed his home had been broken into, and who thought he saw a gun poke out from that closet.
On Wednesday, a jury in Pierce County Superior Court gave Mapp its answer: Not guilty.
The jury of seven men and five women deliberated for all of Wednesday morning and part of the afternoon before giving its verdict. The room of about two dozen people, including friends and family of Dickman, was silent as Judge Philip Sorensen read the decision. A sheriff’s deputy brought them two boxes of tissues.
Mapp, 45, had been accused of second-degree murder under two different theories of the offense. The not-guilty verdict for both counts meant jurors had one more question to decide before court adjourned. Did Mapp act in self-defense? At least 10 of the jurors had to find that it was more likely than not.
Deputy prosecuting attorney Matthew Thomas and Mapp’s defense attorney, Jared Ausserer of Puget Law Group, gave brief arguments on the question. The jury deliberated, and a short time later they gave their decision. All but two of the jurors agreed Mapp acted in self-defense. That means Mapp has the right to be reimbursed by the state for the cost of legal fees involved in his defense and loss of time.
While the jury deliberated for a second time, Mapp smiled and hugged supporters in the gallery. Family and friends of Dickman left the courtroom. After court adjourned, Mapp declined to give a statement to The News Tribune. Ausserer said he trusts the jury process.
“I think the jury got it right, and we respect their verdicts on any case,” Ausserer said. “Thankful that they agreed it was self-defense, but they decide.”
Although acquitted of second-degree murder, Mapp still faces sentencing April 17 for second-degree unlawful possession of a firearm. He pleaded guilty to that charge March 11. Prosecutors said the standard sentencing range he faces is one to three months. Thomas agreed Mapp should be out of custody on his personal recognizance in the meantime.
Thomas said he couldn’t give a statement to The News Tribune following the verdicts without the spokesperson for the Prosecuting Attorney’s Office.
Mapp has prior felony drug convictions that were vacated by the Washington Supreme Court’s Blake decision and for unlawfully possessing a firearm. According to a pretrial services report, he was also convicted of misdemeanor domestic-violence assault in 2002 in Tacoma Municipal Court.
The defendant was released from jail on a $1 million bail bond about two weeks after the Jan. 28, 2024 fatal shooting.
Dickman was a mother of five who had been dating Mapp for several months. Mapp called 911 after the early-morning shooting and reported that he had shot Dickman, and that she had been hiding in a closet in his hallway.
On the phone with 911, Mapp said he wasn’t going to touch her. The dispatcher asked him what he meant.
“I’m not going to [expletive] up the investigation,” Mapp said.
Dickman was dead when Tacoma police arrived. There were three bullet holes in the closet, and she had been shot twice. Pepper spray was in the air, and a red plastic pepperblaster was on the ground by the woman’s hand. Tucked into her pants was a pistol.
In Mapp’s statements to police and detectives, he denied knowing it was Dickman in his closet. Prosecutors say the accounts he gave to the 911 dispatcher, a patrol officer and detectives weren’t consistent, and that the evidence shows he knew Dickman had been stealing from him that night.
“He went for the gun because this isn’t about a relationship,” Thomas said during closing arguments Tuesday. “This is about her threatening his cocaine and his money.”
Ausserer told jurors Tuesday afternoon that Thomas was spinning a fantastical tale. He said what they had to determine was if Mapp’s response to what he perceived was objectively reasonable.
“And of course it was,” Ausserer said. “It’s not even close.”
Ausserer said Mapp knew his home had been burglarized, that a window had been broken in the basement and that his home had been ransacked.
“The actual evidence of what happened next was, he walks up the hallway,” Ausserer said. “The door opens. He sees an arm come out. It appears to be a gun. He stops the door and fires three rounds, and she falls out in the hallway.”
Timeline of the shooting
The series of events that led up to Dickman’s death began with a date night. Prosecutors said Mapp and Dickman had plans to see a comedian at the Emerald Queen Casino, and the two drove to the show together in Mapp’s car.
The two initially enjoyed the show and took videos of themselves together, according to prosecutors’ trial brief. But at some point during the performance, the couple began to argue about Mapp’s pursuit of other women. Dickman took Mapp’s car and left the casino, leaving Mapp behind.
Dickman lived about four blocks from Mapp, and she left his car at his home before returning to her own house. Mapp got a friend to pick him up and take him home, according to prosecutors, where he realized he didn’t have his keys. The friend drove him to Dickman’s house, where the two argued before he got the keys.
The friend drove Mapp home and asked for gas money. Prosecutors said Mapp went inside. According to charging documents, Mapp later told detectives that’s when he discovered $4,000 in cash missing from his bedroom and the broken window.
Prosecutors said Mapp came back outside and indicated he couldn’t find any gas money. Prosecutors said he also indicated that he believed Dickman had stolen money from him. The friend left unpaid.
Mapp returned to Dickman’s house a second time, then went to a nearby bar called the Brass Lantern. Meanwhile, according to prosecutors, Dickman and her children walked to a 7-Eleven for snacks. The boys went inside, but Dickman did not. When the boys went to pay, they realized their mother had left. Prosecutors said they walked home and didn’t see their mother again.
While Dickman and her children went to the convenience store, Mapp went to another bar, Fergie’s On the Ave. There, an image from security video displayed in court showed Mapp pulling out a roll of cash. He ran into an acquaintance and cousin of Dickman while he was there, and she overheard Mapp arguing with Dickman on FaceTime about her stealing drugs from him. Prosecutors said she also noticed Mapp had a pistol in his waistband.
“Y’all are going to be fine,” the acquaintance told Mapp at the bar, according to prosecutors.
“No, we won’t be fine,” Mapp reportedly replied.
At the bar, Mapp opened his Ring app on his phone. Minutes later, he drove home. In his driveway, one of Dickman’s children, a 14-year-old boy, approached and asked if his mother was at Mapp’s house. According to prosecutors, Mapp told him she wasn’t, and he drove the boy back to his mother’s house.
While parked outside Dickman’s house, Mapp again opened the Ring app on his phone and tried calling Dickman three times. Prosecutors said Mapp’s phone was off.
Mapp drove back home, and within five minutes of arriving, he called 911 and reported that he’d shot his ex-girlfriend.
This story was originally published March 25, 2026 at 2:49 PM.
CORRECTION: A previous version of this story incorrectly attributed a 2025 conviction for misdemeanor domestic-violence assault to Nathan Mapp.
