Tacoma man gets life in prison for fatally strangling wife and breaking DV order
The man who fatally strangled his wife at a South Tacoma home while she had a domestic-violence protection order against him was convicted of aggravated first-degree murder and was sentenced Monday to life in prison without parole.
A jury found Joseph Ricky Emile, 57, guilty in a trial last month. He was also convicted of violating a court order, first-degree burglary and felony murder. The second murder offense was vacated at sentencing due to double jeopardy.
Pierce County Superior Court Judge Alicia Marie Burton imposed Emile’s sentence. Life in prison without the possibility of parole is the only punishment available in Washington to judges sentencing defendants who commit aggravated first-degree murder as an adult.
Prosecutors said in court filings that DNA found on the fingertips of the victim, Nodra Emile, videos of Joseph Emile’s presence at the home, cell phone records and the observations of the defendant’s daughter all linked him to the homicide.
At trial, which began May 14, the nature of the defense was general denial, according to court documents.
Two prior domestic-violence reports from 2009 and 2011 were identified by prosecutors. In both incidents, according to the state’s trial brief, the violence was prompted by Joseph Emile’s belief that Nodra Emile was cheating on him.
In the first incident, security personnel at Bates Technical College reported that Joseph Emile showed up and threatened to “pop” students he believed were sleeping with his wife.
In the second incident, prosecutors said Joseph Emile called the police after he “accidentally” scratched the victim’s face during a verbal argument. A witness in the murder case reportedly told the police that the couple had a history of domestic disputes but stayed close to each other for their children.
Nodra Emile, 47, didn’t live in Tacoma but frequently visited to see her parents at a home on South Cheyenne Street, according to the trial brief. Nodra Emile’s niece told the police that her aunt and the defendant spent the day together with their three children and came back to the residence at about midnight.
At about 4 a.m. on Dec. 2, 2023, the niece woke up to her aunt yelling. Prosecutors said she heard Nodra Emile yell, “My God, he’s going to kill me!” and then called 911.
The children were upstairs, too, and while the niece was on the phone with 911, she heard Joseph Emile yell at them to stop crying, according to prosecutors. She then saw him leave the house with the children. Prosecutors said she went upstairs, and the door to the bedroom where Nodra Emile was staying was locked. After she managed to get in, she found her aunt covered by a blanket. There were marks on her aunt’s throat, and she wasn’t breathing.
Nodra Emile’s niece performed CPR until the Fire Department arrived. Emergency personnel transported the victim to a hospital, where she died later that day.
The medical examiner noted the victim had deep marks that were consistent with being strangled by a ligature, according to prosecutors. During the autopsy the medical examiner also found beads embedded in the wound that were consistent with a necklace Nodra Emile was wearing.
One of the victim’s children witnessed part of the murder, according to prosecutors. The state’s trial brief said a defense investigator interviewed one of the children in January. The child said she went to the bedroom door when she heard her mother scream, and, when she opened it, she saw her father on top of her mother and choking her on the floor.
Officers located and detained Joseph Emile at his residence at about 5 a.m. the morning Nodra Emile was found. In an interview with the police, according to prosecutors, he said he was with his wife all day, and they then dropped their children off to go out to dance and have drinks. He said when they returned to the residence on South Cheyenne Street their children were asleep, and they got in bed together and watched TV.
He claimed that Nodra Emile mentioned during the night that a male friend was supposed to visit her at 4 a.m. According to prosecutors, he said he didn’t know the person, so he woke up his children at about 3 a.m. and left the house.
Joseph Emile’s prior felony convictions include first-degree robbery in 1990 in the U.S. Virgin Islands, residential burglary in 2002 in King County, domestic-violence assault in 2004 in Tacoma and obstructing a law enforcement officer in 2010 in Fife.
In other news out of Superior Court
Teenager sentenced for fatal shooting outside Hilltop apartment
A teenager who fatally shot an 18-year-old Tacoma man who tried to break up an altercation outside an apartment in the Hilltop neighborhood has been sentenced to 15 years in state custody.
Jason Dale Lenahan Jr., 18, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder July 10. Pierce County Superior Court Judge Grant Blinn sentenced him the same day, giving him a punishment near the high end of the standard sentencing range of about 10 to 18 years.
Lenahan was 16 when he shot and killed Kadony Robbins on Feb. 14, 2025 in the 1300 block of South G Street. According to court documents, Lenahan’s cousin, Jeremy Paz Pineda, then 15, told him to shoot Robbins.
Robbins’ girlfriend told detectives that Paz Pineda had been staying at the third-floor apartment for the past week. She said she and Robbins went there for a get-together, and at some point everyone was asked to leave because they were too loud.
The resident of the apartment and her daughter began to argue outside, according to the probable cause document, and eventually people tried to get back inside the building. The girlfriend said Paz Pineda hit her, and Robbins went outside and yelled at him. She said Robbins was trying to calm Paz Pineda down when he told Lenahan to shoot him.
Another witness said Paz Pineda got into an argument with an older man, who told Paz Pineda and his friends to leave, according to the probable cause document. The witness said Robbins was trying to escort Paz Pineda and his friends out, and the argument continued outside the apartment.
The witness reported seeing Paz Pineda make a phone call on a staircase within the building and then state, “Rico is on his way.” The argument continued outside the front doors of the building, where Robbins continued to try to prevent Paz Pineda and his friends from re-entering.
At some point Lenahan arrived in a gray car. According to the probable cause document, Paz Pineda repeatedly told him to shoot Robbins. Lenahan shot him once in the chest, and then he and Paz Pineda fled.
Paz Pineda pleaded guilty in January to second-degree murder for his part in the crime. A judge sentenced him to 10 years in state custody. He was originally charged as a juvenile, but his case was later transferred to adult court.
In Washington, young people sentenced for crimes committed before they are 18 go to juvenile rehabilitation in the custody of the Department of Children, Youth and Families until age 25 when they would transfer to the Department of Corrections.
Man sentenced for fatally stabbing his mother
A 37-year-old man who told 911 dispatchers that his mother used his knife to kill herself in a Tacoma apartment pleaded guilty to killing her and was sentenced to 18 years, four months in prison.
Ronald Thomas Stephens pleaded guilty July 7 to second-degree murder for the fatal stabbing of 64-year-old Mary Jane Stephens.
Pierce County Superior Court Judge Grant Blinn sentenced him the same day, imposing a sentence at the high end of the standard sentencing range of about 10-18 years in prison.
According to court documents, Ronald Stephens called 911 shortly before 9 a.m. on April 18, 2025. He reported that he was going to take his niece to school when he found his mother in her bedroom with a knife wound in her chest, and he said it appeared that she had tried to slit her wrist.
The police and the Fire Department responded to the apartment in the 1200 block of North Pearl Street. According to the probable cause document, Mary Stephens was found with a pillow over her face. Detectives noted that her son made inconsistent statements to patrol officers and detectives about whether his mother had been suicidal.
Ronald Stephens’ sister was also at the apartment. In separate interviews with detectives at the Tacoma Police Department headquarters, she and her brother gave different timelines about the previous night. Detectives noted that Ronald Stephens contradicted himself in his statements, and that a sheath for the knife used in the incident was found in a plastic bag in his sister’s room.
Four days after their mother’s death, the sister returned to police headquarters for another interview that lasted six hours. A detective wrote in an affidavit that she described several versions of events and was “obviously” trying to minimize what she knew until detectives pressed her.
The sister recounted the events of the night of her mother’s death again, and she told detectives she and her brother played UNO in her room. When they were done, she said, she went to the bathroom and had the fan on. She reportedly told detectives that she assumed her brother went to the living room. When she exited the bathroom, she went to her room and heard a “gasping” noise. She told detectives that she didn’t investigate the noise because she was scared.
Ronald Stephens then came to her room, the sister told detectives, and he sat on the edge of an air mattress. The sister said he said something to the effect of, “I did it,” and she saw what looked like a blood smear on one of his palms.
