Everett shooting death self-defense, jury finds

Published 9:00 pm Wednesday, June 23, 2004

Michael Lipke and a companion were looking for a fight two years ago when an Everett man went to his apartment and got his pistol to defend himself.

Jason Lee Harrison, 23, fired three or four times into Lipke’s car, killing him, but a Snohomish County Superior Court jury Wednesday ruled the shooting was self-defense.

The jury acquitted Harrison of second-degree murder. It also acquitted him of first- and second-degree manslaughter.

Harrison hugged defense lawyer Neal Friedman when the verdicts were announced.

Harrison, who was two days shy of getting out of the U.S. Navy on June 25, 2002, had planned to marry his fiance, Sokha Srey, and move back to his home state of Mississippi. The shooting put those plans on hold, Friedman said, but Harrison now plans to do just that.

“He was jubilant. He now can be a father, a husband. He can live his life,” Friedman said.

The defense lawyer said he was “absolutely thrilled” with the verdict.

“The jurors listened to the facts and applied the law to the facts,” he said. “This is a clear self-defense case.”

Lipke and a second man got into an argument with Harrison and a friend outside a south Everett bar. Lipke followed them first to a convenience store and then to Harrison’s apartment complex, where a fight and the shooting occurred.

When Lipke reached into his car to get what Harrison presumed was a weapon, the defendant ran to his apartment and got a pistol.

“It’s always been about Jason,” Friedman told jurors. “You have to put yourselves in his shoes.”

Friedman maintains Harrison was afraid for his life and those of two companions. He returned with the gun and fired into Lipke’s car as a warning, he testified. It was dark, and the car had tinted windows. He said he didn’t see anyone inside.

Deputy prosecutor Paul Stern contends the evidence shows the car was backing out of a parking stall.

“He knew somebody was in the car,” Stern told jurors. “Why is that important? He was mad.”

Stern said there’s reason to believe Harrison intended to shoot Lipke.

The prosecutor conceded that Lipke and his companion were out for a fight and may have acted like thugs. But that’s something the law should take care of with a jury trial, much like Harrison’s.

“It was not up to Mr. Harrison to skip that and go to the execution,” Stern said. “There’s a line between self-defense and revenge.”

At the least, shooting into the car was reckless, something that deserves a manslaughter verdict, Stern argued.