19 years for Everett murder some relief for victim’s family

Published 11:21 pm Tuesday, July 15, 2008

EVERETT — He escaped a bullet once that day. He couldn’t outrun the violence a second time.

Dennis Riojas, 19, was shot in the back as he climbed over a fence near his family’s south Everett apartment in 2006. He died face down, a causality of a gang-related dispute in a neighborhood where more young people are welcoming the embrace of gang life.

Riojas’ dreams, his future, were stolen in a moment. In that same moment, another teen lost his youth. Jermaine Lewis was just 17 when he pointed the gun at Riojas and pulled the trigger.

On Tuesday Lewis, now 19, was sent to prison for what to him has been a lifetime.

Lewis was ordered to spend 19 years behind bars for the murder. He pleaded guilty last week to second-degree murder, although he maintained his innocence.

Snohomish County Superior Court Judge Linda Krese called the slaying a tragedy that could have been avoided. All too often she sees the aftermath of young people resorting to violence to settle their differences. The consequences are heartbreaking, she said.

“One man lost his life and another young man has ruined his, or at least his prospects,” Krese said. “It shouldn’t have happened.”

Riojas’ mother, Stella Miranda, asked the judge not to grant Lewis leniency. Her firstborn son was left to die alone. She doesn’t get the chance to see him marry or become a father. She never again gets to hear her son say, “Good night, Mom, I love you,” Miranda said.

“You killed my son, Jermaine,” she said. “Dennis had his life ahead of him. He didn’t deserve to die. You, yourself, are a kid and you ruined your life.”

Lewis’ attorney Karen Halverson asked Krese to consider her client’s age at the time of the shooting, along with his upbringing in an unstable environment. She pointed out that no one was in the courtroom on his behalf.

“Jermaine is not an evil person. He was 17 when this happened,” Halverson said.

Lewis on Tuesday was unsettled in how to deal with the legal troubles facing him.

Last week, on the day his trial was to begin, Lewis entered a plea that allowed him to avoid admitting any wrongdoing. Instead, he acknowledged sufficient evidence existed to ensure a jury would convict him.

Prosecutors had planned to tack on additional charges, including tampering with a witness, before proceeding with jury selection. The other charges could have added nine years to Lewis’ sentence if he were convicted, Snohomish County deputy prosecutor John Stansell said.

On Tuesday, Lewis said he made a mistake and was under pressure to plead guilty. He asked to withdraw his plea. He said he wanted a trial.

“I’m not the person who took this man’s life,” Lewis said. “I wish to tell the family what really happened but it’s like I’m a big, bad monster.”

Krese declined to revoke the plea. She was the judge who allowed him to take that step last week at a hearing where she carefully questioned him to make certain he understood what he was doing.

The judge said she is confident his attorney thoroughly explained the plea and his options long before last week. There also is sufficient evidence to show that Lewis shot and killed Riojas, she added.

Krese said she was troubled that Lewis showed no remorse for the murder and refused to take responsibility. She followed the prosecutors’ recommendation, handing down a sentence at the high end of the range.

Her ruling came as a relief to Riojas’ family and friends.

“We have found some peace today,” the slain teen’s mother said.

After the hearing, Miranda visited her son’s grave, accompanied by her husband, surviving sons and friends. They wore red and white in honor of the teen, who dreamed of becoming a professional skateboarder and loved shopping.

They held hands and shared tears. So much pain, so much gone.

Miranda said she can endure the loss because of her faith in God and Jesus Christ as her savior.

To remember her son, the mourners released red and white balloons into the bright July sky. Miranda’s family watched the balloons soar upward. The grieving mother returned her gaze to her son’s headstone.

She wanted Lewis to apologize. She wanted him to understand what he did to her family.

She wanted to know why her son had to die.

The shooting was believed to be tied to a gang-related dispute between young men who got into an argument at an outdoor basketball court in south Everett a week before Riojas’ death. Riojas wasn’t involved in the fight and wasn’t believed to be in a gang, Stansell said.

The dispute escalated first into drive-by gunfire, with Lewis firing a single shot at Riojas and another person in south Everett. No one was hurt. Then came threatening telephone calls.

Riojas arrived home to find several people waiting for him. He jumped out of a car and tried to scale a fence near his home. He was gunned down.

His body was found a couple hours later in a planting area behind an apartment building in the 700 block of 124th Street SW, near his home. Miranda and her family eventually moved from their south Everett apartment out of fear of more violence.

Riojas was slain in the same neighborhood where a recent drive-by gang shooting left an Everett teen injured. Police believe members of MS-13, a violent street gang, shot at that boy in retribution for a shooting outside a Seattle mall in February. Three people were arrested, including a north Everett woman who is believed to be a recruiter for the gang.

Miranda’s son didn’t escape the violence. She hopes somewhere someone will remember her family and make a different choice than the boy who robbed her of her son. Maybe some other mother will be spared, she said.

Reporter Diana Hefley: 425-339-3463 or hefley@heraldnet.com.