Seattle police officer set to be sentenced for 2019 shooting death of a homeless man

A suburban Seattle police officer is set to be sentenced Thursday for the 2019 shooting death of a 26-year-old homeless man he was trying to arrest for disorderly conduct outside a convenience store.

A King County jury found Auburn police Officer Jeffrey Nelson guilty on June 27 of second-degree murder and first-degree assault for fatally shooting Jesse Sarey, marking the first conviction under a Washington state law that made it easier to prosecute law enforcement officers for on-duty killings.

Prosecutors plan to ask the judge to sentence Nelson at the top end of the standard range for each count: 18 years in prison for the murder charge and 10 years for the assault, and run them concurrently, according to their sentencing memorandum filed with the court.

“Doing so will reflect Nelson’s long history of violence towards the less powerful, the egregious nature of his conduct, his dishonesty, and the great damage he has caused in our community,” King County Special Prosecutor Patty Eakes said in the memo.

Nelson’s lawyers plan to urge the judge to sentence him to the lowest possible range – six and a half years — arguing he served his community, was a valued member of his team “and on countless occasions, placed the lives of strangers above his own.”

“Officer Nelson chose a career in law enforcement because he was driven by his sense of duty to others,” lawyer Kristen Murray said in their sentencing memo. “He wanted to serve his community and did so for years, working to help people every day. That’s all gone now.”

During his trial in June, jurors were told that Nelson had responded to reports of a man throwing things at cars, kicking walls and banging on windows in a shopping area in Auburn, a city about 28 miles (45 kilometers) south of Seattle. Nelson tried to get Sarey into handcuffs. He resisted and Nelson tried a hip-throw and punched Sarey seven times. He pinned Sarey against the wall, pulled out his gun and shot him. Sarey fell to the ground.

Nelson’s gun jammed, he cleared it, looked around and then aimed at Sarey’s forehead, firing once more. Nelson claimed Sarey tried to grab his gun, leading to the first shot. He said he believed Sarey had grabbed his knife during the struggle so he shot Sarey in self-defense. A witness disputed that claim.

The case was the second to go to trial since Washington voters in 2018 removed a standard that required prosecutors to prove an officer acted with malice — a standard no other state uses. Now they must show the officer’s force was unreasonable or unnecessary. In December, jurors acquitted three Tacoma police officers in the 2020 death of Manuel Ellis.

“Jesse Sarey died because this defendant chose to disregard his training at every step of the way,” Eakes told the jury in her closing argument. The shooting was “unnecessary, unreasonable and unjustified,” she said.

Sarey was the third person Nelson has killed in his law enforcement career. Jurors did not hear evidence about Nelson’s prior uses of deadly force.

Nelson killed Isaiah Obet in 2017. Obet was acting erratically and Nelson ordered his police dog to attack. He shot Obet in the torso and Obet fell to the ground. Nelson fired again, fatally shooting Obet in the head. Police said the officer’s life was in danger because Obet was high on drugs and had a knife. The city reached a settlement of $1.25 million with Obet’s family.

In 2011, Nelson fatally shot Brian Scaman, a Vietnam War veteran with mental issues and a history of felonies, after pulling Scaman’s vehicle over for a burned-out headlight. Scaman got out of his car with a knife and refused to drop it; Nelson shot him in the head. An inquest jury cleared Nelson of wrongdoing.

The City of Auburn settled a civil rights claim by Sarey’s family for $4 million and has paid nearly $2 million more to settle other litigation involving Nelson’s actions as a police officer. Nelson remains on unpaid leave with the Auburn department.