SEATTLE – A King County Superior Court jury on Tuesday convicted lawyer William R. Joice of attempted first-degree murder in a 2004 shooting that left a rival attorney in a nursing home, unable to speak.
Joice, a former Snohomish County deputy prosecutor, faces a standard-range sentence of 20 to 25 years in prison, but King County prosecutors plan to seek an exceptional sentence based on aggravating factors.
Joice, 51, took the stand during the trial to argue that although he shot Kevin Jung in the head outside Jung’s Bellevue law office, he didn’t intend to kill him. Joice said he was just trying to injure Jung to buy some time in a lawsuit which pitted the two lawyers against each other.
Jung, a 45-year-old father of two, and Joice represented opposite sides in a contract dispute, and court filings show Jung had grown frustrated at Joice’s repeated failure to meet deadlines and follow court orders. A court commissioner had required Joice to pay Jung thousands of dollars in fees for missing hearings and failing to turn over documents.
On the morning of Nov. 3, 2004, the two lawyers were supposed to appear in court in Everett for a hearing in the case; Jung had asked the commissioner to find Joice in contempt.
Instead, Joice pulled up outside Jung’s office in a rented Pontiac. As Jung got in his car to drive to Everett, Joice fired several shots and drove off, but not before a witness wrote down the license plate number and called 911.
Officers easily tracked the license plate number to the rental car agency and arrested Joice.
The trial began Dec. 7.
Associated Press
Former Snohomish County deputy prosecutor William Joice is led out of King County Superior Court in Seattle after he was convicted of attempted first-degree murder on Tuesday.
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