Victim’s family addresses co-defendant in killing

Published 11:00 pm Tuesday, January 19, 2010

EVERETT — Elmer Sampson on Tuesday faced the family of the man who was shot to death in 2008 north of the Tulalip Indian Reservation.

Nicky Schoonover Jr., 36, was found in a vacant lot near the reservation. He’d been shot multiple times in a robbery Feb. 19, 2008.

His father told Sampson that Schoonover was loved and missed.

“You’ve hurt so many people,” Nicky Schoonover Sr. said Tuesday.

His son will never get to walk his own daughter down the aisle or hold his grandchildren. His family is reminded of their loss at every holiday when there is only an empty plate at the table where Schoonover should be.

Sampson was sentenced to 11 years in prison.

He pleaded guilty in July to second-degree murder and agreed to testify against co-defendant Jamall Baker.

Prosecutors allege that Baker shot Schoonover. Detectives believe Schoonover, was killed for his disability payment. Investigators discovered a check-cashing receipt clenched in his hand. Earlier in the day he’d taken the $800 check to a Money Tree check-cashing business in Everett.

Prosecutors recommended a low-end sentence in return for Sampson’s cooperation in the case against Baker. Snohomish County deputy prosecutor Helene Blume explained Tuesday that Sampson’s testimony is critical to proving that Baker fired the shots.

Sampson was expected to be sentenced after he testified, but Baker’s trial has been delayed. Baker is at Western State Hospital in an attempt to restore his competency. So far doctors have determined that he is unable to assist in his own legal defense.

Sampson was reminded Tuesday that if he fails to provide truthful testimony he could find himself back in court. Prosecutors could charge him with first-degree murder again or recommend a higher sentence.

Sampson’s attorney Rob O’Neal said that his client was an accomplice to an assault that ended in Schoonover’s death. He didn’t shoot Schoonover, also known as “Scratchy.”

“He never meant to harm Nicky Schoonover. He intended to feed his drug habit,” O’Neal said.

Sampson apologized on Tuesday for his role.

“I know it was wrong, me being a drug addict and being off my medication,” he said.

Snohomish County Superior Court Judge Michael Downes tacked on an extra year to the sentence recommended by the prosecutor.

“This is a case, unfortunately, that we see far too frequently in the courts and criminal justice system: a shooting death of a relatively young man for no, real apparent reason,” Downes said. “None of this makes sense.”

Schoonover had some difficulties in life but he obviously was loved by his family, the judge said.

Downes also acknowledged that prosecutors faced a difficult decision in recommending a low-end sentence in pursuit of holding accountable the man believed responsible for the shooting.

“It’s never as easy a task as people contend it is,” Downes said.

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