Felon pleads innocent to murder in police chase fatality

Associated Press

TACOMA — A convicted sex offender pleaded innocent Monday to charges he killed a motorist while fleeing from police after an alleged rape.

Bail for Bruce Eric Smith, 33, was set at $1 million by Pierce County Superior Court Judge Kathryn J. Nelson.

Smith is charged with first-degree rape and burglary and third-degree assault in an attack that followed a break-in at a woman’s residence Friday morning. He is charged with felony murder in the subsequent chase, which ended in the death of a Tacoma man when the stolen vehicle Smith was driving hit the man’s vehicle head on.

Killed was Russell Whitaker, 26, of Tacoma, a longtime Burger King employee driving to pick up his sister from work.

More than 100 people attended a candlelight vigil for Whitaker on Sunday night near the site of the crash.

The alleged rape victim attended the court hearing Monday, sitting in a back row bench with her head buried in her boyfriend’s chest.

The charge of felony murder can involve causing someone else’s death while fleeing a crime scene, Pierce County Prosecutor Gerry Horne said. Conviction does not carry the death penalty.

A King County resident, Smith has spent most of the past decade in and out of prison and jail. His criminal record includes convictions for kidnapping, attempted rape and assault.

A jury convicted Smith of a third felony — second-degree assault with a deadly weapon — and he received a life sentence without possibility of parole in March 1999 under Washington’s "Three Strikes You’re Out" law.

Smith appealed, saying the court system violated his right to a speedy trial within 60 days of being charged because no courtrooms were available. In January 2001, the Washington State Court of Appeals in Tacoma agreed and overturned his conviction.

Another felony conviction would reinstate the no-parole life sentence under the state’s "three strikes" law.