Pierce County woman’s fringe ideology raises dark questions at murder sentencing
What should the punishment for murder be when the victim convinces her killer to take her life? What if the man behind the gun believes — mistakenly — that carrying out her wishes will relieve her from a life of pain, rather than harm her?
Those dark questions took center stage Thursday at the sentencing hearing for Lars Eugene Nelson, who pleaded guilty in April to second-degree murder for the death of 27-year-old Sophie Tinney. At the end of the hearing, Superior Court Judge Alicia Burton sentenced Nelson, 30, to seven years and six months in prison.
“It is a human tragedy on all levels,” Burton said of the case.
On Easter Sunday last year, Nelson shot Tinney in the head three times while she slept inside a home on Fox Island. According to Nelson’s defense attorney, Michael Stewart, it was the conclusion of a years-long plan Tinney embarked on, tied up with philosophies known as anti-natalism and negative utilitarianism.
The defense attorney described Tinney as “somewhat of a leader” in the anti-natalist movement, an extreme ideology that sees procreation as immoral and that just existing causes harm. Stewart said she was close friends with Guy Bartkus, the 25-year-old man who died while bombing a fertility clinic in Palm Springs, California, injuring four people, a month after Tinney’s death.
Tinney and Bartkus would go back and forth for hours about the idea that they were put on Earth without their consent and that humans were destroying the planet, Stewart wrote in a court filing. According to the New York Times, Bartkus said online that Tinney’s death might have prompted the bombing.
Stewart said the scary thing about Tinney’s beliefs was that there was some hook of truth to them.
“No one can remember consenting to being born,” Stewart said. “That’s true, but most people consent to live. It is true that the decrease of suffering is a benefit, and that we should try to do that, but it is also true that increasing joy means something as well — that’s not part of their philosophy. It is true that humanity is trampling all over this planet, but it is not a reason to die, it is a reason to live a better life.”
Tinney tried to die by suicide multiple times, according to Stewart, and he said she lived with painful migraines and issues with her vision. Tinney was also a fervent vegan who avoided stepping on woolen carpets or sitting on leather couches.
She met Nelson at Gig Harbor High School, and the two dated for a few years before breaking up. They reconnected in 2020 and resumed dating the next year. Tinney required Nelson to become a vegan, too, and in time Stewart said she drew him into her larger worldview.
“She had wanted to die for years,” Stewart said in court. “She set out on a course of action to convince Lars to do just exactly that. In her quotes she recognized how he fought against it, and she said ‘I think I can break him. I tried to get him to come with me. Obviously because then he wouldn’t refuse so much,’ and she questioned why he was holding back.”
Stewart said Tinney persistently pressured Nelson to help her end her life. The attorney said psychological exams showed Nelson was very susceptible to persuasion, and over and over again Tinney had Nelson practice killing her in her sleep and promise to do it.
“He would pace for hours and cry and tear himself apart,” Stewart said. “In the morning when she woke up, she was angry, and she yelled at him, ‘Did you even try? What did you do?’”
“And then they’d practice it again and work on it again,” Stewart said.
Prosecutors and the defense agreed to recommend Nelson be sentenced below the standard range of about 10-18 years in prison for someone with no prior criminal history.
Had the case gone to trial, deputy prosecuting attorney Derek Keenan said prosecutors’ consensus was that it would most likely result in a hung jury. He said the case possibly would have had to be tried multiple times.
Keenan said the case posed fairly novel questions about what the appropriate punishment is when there is no evidence of malice. In videos and audio files sealed from the public because they were tantamount to suicide notes, Keenan said Tinney expressly requested that Nelson not be punished for the crime of killing her.
“However, as much as Sophie Tinney wanted to die, it was Lars Nelson who ultimately took her life, and in doing so, he eliminated the possibility for Sophie to wake up one morning and rediscover the brightness and joy that exists in this world,” Keenan said. “Sophie’s future wasn’t final. It wasn’t certain up until the moment that Mr. Nelson decided to take her life.”
From the outside looking in, Keenan said he could understand how 90 months in prison for the most serious crime a person could commit would be unfathomable. Keenan said the sentencing recommendation attempted to balance punishment, deterrence, rehabilitation, and the wishes of Tinney’s parents and the wishes of Tinney herself.
Tinney’s father, Mark Tinney, also spoke in court. Speaking softly, he described his daughter as a highly intelligent, creative and accomplished artist who also had a history of depression. He said it was almost cliche, but that depression often goes hand in hand with highly creative people.
“But depression is also transitory,” Mark Tinney said. “It comes and goes. And people can be in that state and come out of it. When you’re in that state logic goes out the window. And your intelligence and your, everything that you’ve got, she possessed, could go down darker paths.”
“In those times when someone is experiencing depression, they need support and confirmation that it will pass,” he added.
Mark Tinney said his family was not completely on board with the sentencing recommendation because Nelson had an off-ramp at every turn.
“True courage, compassion, would have been to step aside and allow those more equipped to enter the situation,” Mark Tinney said. “He had options at every turn, and at every turn he chose another path with no regard for how this would affect family, friends, loved ones.”
When it was Nelson’s turn to speak at the end of the hearing, he stood and read from a piece of paper. He said after years of asking and trying, he was convinced to help end Tinney’s life, and he believed he was doing the right thing, but he no longer does.
“During those last few months before April 20 of 2025, I believed I failed Sophie every day I did not do what she asked of me,” Nelson said. “I now believe something entirely different. I now believe I failed her because I couldn’t ease her pain. I couldn’t cure her hurt, I couldn’t give her a reason to live. I failed for not getting her the help she needed and not getting the help I needed.”
If you or someone you know needs mental health assistance, reach out to the National Suicide and Crisis Hotline by calling 988. That is the nationwide 24-7 number for anyone experiencing a mental health crisis, thoughts of suicide, or emotional distress in the United States. It also offers guidance for how to help someone in crisis and access community resources.
