Man gets 20 years for part in veteran’s death

Published 11:02 pm Friday, June 22, 2007

TACOMA – A Lakewood man was sentenced to 20 years in prison Friday for a kidnapping that resulted in the death of a former soldier near a darkened and isolated gate at Fort Lewis. The gunman in the case received 29 years.

Thomas Evans Dunigan, 23, played a key role in the conspiracy to murder Christopher Jerry, 20, in August 2005, U.S. District Judge Ronald Leighton said in handing down the sentence.

Jerry, who was having financial problems after being kicked out of the Army for using drugs, had borrowed $1,200 from another soldier, Michael Jordan, to get his Ford Explorer out of hock at an Auburn tow yard, prosecutors said. Jordan was upset that he had not been paid back.

Jerry, meanwhile, had also angered Dunigan, a member of the Black Gangster Disciples gang, by arguing with him and later threatening him.

On the night of Aug. 30, 2005, Jordan and others tricked Jerry into coming with them for what he thought was going to be a party. Instead, they tied him up, beat him, and called Dunigan, who proceeded to contact other members of his gang – including Markus Moore.

They brought Jerry to the darkened crash gate at the Fort Lewis Ammo Supply Point. When Jerry tried to run, Jordan tackled him. Moore stepped forward and shot him in the head and neck, court records show.

Moore was sentenced last week to 29 years. Dunigan, who pleaded guilty, apologized to the court in a letter Thursday, saying Jerry didn’t deserve to die and that he wished it had been him instead.

“I learned by being in here that this guy was like me,” Dunigan wrote. “He had a kid and he was out there trying to survive the streets.”

Jordan is scheduled to be sentenced July 24, and another man, Jacob Ray Gardner, on July 25.