It was an execution.
A dad, a prosecutor and a judge agreed in court Tuesday that the shooting death of a former Mariner High School soccer star could only be described that way.
That’s why the man who fired the single shot into a sleeping Nicholas DeSimone’s head was sentenced to nearly 28 years in prison, the maximum penalty under state sentencing rules.
Dustin Maurice Jackson, 19, of Everett, in February pleaded guilty to first-degree murder. He admitted to slipping into a Stanwood-area home Aug. 20 and shooting DeSimone in the head as he slept on the floor next to his girlfriend.
Jackson was sentenced to prison on Tuesday in an emotionally charged hearing conducted under rigid security. He must serve 20 years before starting to earn time off for good behavior, said Joan Cavagnaro, chief criminal deputy prosecutor for Snohomish County.
Superior Court Judge Larry McKeeman told a packed audience that he agreed with Vince DeSimone, the 19-year-old soccer star’s father, who called the killing “a senseless execution.” Cavagnaro used the term “cold-blooded execution.”
Family and friends of the dead teen sometimes had trouble controlling their emotions in court.
At one point during the hearing, Vince DeSimone attempted to jump across a bench and over a railing separating the onlookers from court personnel. He was restrained by his son Michael, friends and several uniformed Snohomish County sheriff’s officers.
Later, a tearful Vince DeSimone was allowed to address McKeeman. He stood beside sheriff’s homicide detective Brad Pince telling the judge that Aug. 20 “was the worst day of my life.”
He also said that he began to lose his faith in God, but started to renew his beliefs after he had conversations with people he met during twice daily visits to his son’s grave.
“Now I want to believe in the justice system, too,” he told McKeeman.
Brother Michael and sister Michelle DeSimone told the judge they will miss their little brother.
“Every morning I wake up praying this is just a bad dream,” Michelle DeSimone told the court. Her mother, Evie DeSimone, said that “losing Nick has devastated each of us.”
Spectators were searched for weapons outside the courtroom. When Jackson was ushered in from a side door, he was greeted by cries of “Devil; hi, Devil.” There were similar jeers at the end when Jackson was escorted out the same door to a jail elevator.
Prosecutors alleged that Jackson shot DeSimone out of jealousy.
DeSimone was dating a teenage girl who used to go out with Jackson. Jackson made attempts to regain the girl’s affection and once told her: “I know you are going to be mine again,” according to court documents.
Neither Jackson nor public defender Natalie Tarantino spoke in court. Tarantino presented the judge an evaluation of Jackson that posed another motive for the crime — bad blood between members of the two families.
In his plea papers, Jackson told the court he shot DeSimone because he had made threatening statements against him and his family members.
Cavagnaro said she didn’t mind the judge considering the evaluation, but made clear prosecutors dispute any suggestion there was another motive besides jealously.
McKeeman said he considered the defense evaluation, but that the execution-style of the shooting convinced him Jackson should get the maximum penalty under the law.
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