He got 60 years for a 2006 Tacoma killing. Now, he could be home by Thanksgiving
A crowd of people who showed up to a Pierce County Superior Court re-sentencing couldn’t hold back their cheers and tears Friday afternoon after Judge Shelly Moss announced her decision.
“I am going to adopt Mr. Yarbrough’s proposed sentence. I will propose 240 months on Count 1,” Moss said.
Roughly two dozen people attended the hearing in support of 36-year-old Verrick Yarbrough, who has now spent close to 20 years in custody after being found guilty of killing Rhaczio Simms in a June 2006 gang shooting.
After Friday’s ruling, he’s set to be released from the Department of Corrections in a matter of days, Yarbrough’s attorney Emily Gause said outside the courtroom. He might even be able to make it back for Thanksgiving, she said.
The re-sentencing came in the wake of the Washington State Supreme Court declaring new law in 2017 requiring judges to consider a defendant’s youth at the time of an offense and giving them “absolute discretion” to impose sentences below the standard ranges for juveniles tried as adults.
Yarbrough was charged with first-degree murder by extreme indifference, first-degree assault and second-degree unlawful possession of a firearm. He was 17 years old. In 2007, he received his sentence: 724 months, or just over 60 years.
While both the prosecution and Yarbrough’s defense agreed he deserved a lessened sentence, they differed in what they believed was the appropriate sentencing amount.
Gause argued Friday that the court should impose a 20-year concurrent sentence with credit for time served.
She referenced Yarbrough’s traumatic upbringing surrounded by violence, drugs and gangs as having played a significant role in his developmental immaturity. In the years since entering prison, he’s rehabilitated himself through educational courses, internal job opportunities, regular mental health treatment and youth mentoring programs that he initiated, Gause said.
“We can’t give Verrick back the 20 years that he has spent behind prison walls, but this court can give him the opportunity to make something meaningful of the years ahead,” Gause said. “Twenty years is enough.”
Deputy prosecutor Brittany North asked for a 30-year concurrent sentence with credit for time served, meaning Yarbrough would need to spend another 10 years incarcerated.
North referenced Yarbrough’s 27 disciplinary infractions, with the most recent being caught using cannabis in January 2026, as indications that he’s still struggling to evaluate risk and consequences.
“What gives the state concerns [is] that even when he is supposed to following all the rules, he could not abstain from a rule that he did not want to follow when he was supposed to be on his best behavior,” North said.
Yarbrough addressed the court in an emotional statement before Moss made her decision.
“I would like to take this moment to apologize to the victims, their families, the community, the state of Washington, for my past actions, behaviors, poor choices and the pain that I’ve caused,” Yarbrough said, pausing through his tears.
“I ask that you please do not subject me to prolonging this situation, to allow me to be a productive member of society in my family’s life,” he said. “Allow me to take my growth to the next level, your honor. Allow me to give back to the community and continue to pay my debt to society in the proper way, because prison is not a place that allows me to do that.”
The 2006 shooting
In the early morning hours of July 8, 2006, Simms parked outside Club Friday, a former nightclub in downtown Tacoma, and walked in with two of his friends, according to Pierce County Superior Court documents.
When the three crossed the street, a witness heard someone yell, “What is up? This is Hilltop Crip,” and turned to see Yarbrough with a group of around eight other people, the court documents said.
According to the witness, Yarbrough had something in his hand that she believed was a gun. Gunfire erupted from Yarbrough’s group, killing Simms with a gunshot wound to the back of his head, court documents state.
Another woman testified that she heard gunfire as she approached her car outside the club and saw Yarbrough shooting, but not in her direction, according to court documents. She was hit by return gunfire and sustained serious injuries that left her temporarily paralyzed.
Another bystander was grazed by a bullet and sustained minor injuries.
Evidence at trial showed how four days before the shooting, Yarbrough and a group of his friends got into a verbal altercation with Simms and a group of his friends, according to court documents.
The court was never able to confirm Yarbrough was the one who fired the weapon killing Simms July 8, which is why the state pushed for a first-degree murder by extreme indifference charge in 2006, Gause said. She “strongly disputes” the account that Yarbrough fired the gun, suggesting there was substantial evidence on the record that someone else was the shooter.
The jury in Yarbrough’s murder trial came to the unanimous decision in April 2007 that even if he didn’t fire the weapon, he acted as an accomplice, making him guilty of murder under state law.
Yarbrough was sentenced to 361 months for the fatal shooting of Simms, 123 months for the assault that sent the stray bullet into the woman bystander, 120 months for the gun that fired the shots and 120 months for the aggravating factors of being in a gang and harming a bystander.
Support system speaks out in court
Five people spoke to the court in support of Yarbrough receiving a reduced sentence.
One of them was 19-year-old Zariah Jackson, who knows Yarbrough by a different name: Dad.
Though Yarbrough is not her biological father, he’s long held that role for her and her brothers. She remembers reconnecting with him at a visitation when she was 6 years old.
“I remember I was nervous, I hid under a table,” Jackson said. “But as the day went on, I’ve never felt more comfortable with him. For some reason, I felt uncomfortable calling him by his legal name, so I called him ‘Dad.’ I tapped his arm, and he turned to me with a pure, gentle smile, like he was happy.”
They’ve kept in touch the past 13 years through phone calls and visitations. Though he wasn’t able to make it to key moments in her life, his mentorship from the sidelines has changed her life for the better, she said.
Jackson told The News Tribune after the re-sentencing that she felt relieved and happy to hear his sentence was reduced.
One of the first things she plans to do with Yarbrough after his release is doing a family activity like go-karting or Yarbrough’s favorite sport, basketball.
“My dad, he stepped up, and he became exactly what I wanted a father to be,” she said. “I just love him so much.”
This story was originally published November 7, 2026 at 5:00 AM with the headline "He got 60 years for a 2006 Tacoma killing. Now, he could be home by Thanksgiving."
