EVERETT — Two years after his murder conviction was overturned, Jamel Alexander pleaded guilty to second-degree murder on Tuesday. This comes more than five years after an Everett woman was found stomped to death near a parking lot off the 11600 block of Highway 99.
The 35-year-old man’s sentencing is set for 9 a.m. Oct. 6 before Snohomish County Superior Court Judge William Steffener.
Around 9:22 a.m. Oct. 12, 2019, a man walking his dog found Shawna Brune, 29, nude with shoe prints across her body.
At 9:03 p.m. Oct. 11, 2019, security footage showed Brune entering the woods nearby Cedar Creek Apartments with a man, who detectives later identified as Alexander, wearing a maroon Puma jacket, a knit cap with an Oakland Raiders logo and Vans shoes. At 9:35 p.m., Alexander left the complex alone, court documents said.
Alexander told detectives he had paid Brune for sex, but repeatedly claimed he did not harm her and that Brune was alive when he left.
At the scene, Alexander’s DNA and Brune’s blood were found on the knit cap. His DNA was also on some of Brune’s clothes and her body. Police noted the shoe’s tread pattern throughout the crime scene matched Vans-type shoes, which Alexander appeared to be wearing in the security footage.
Later that night, Alexander entered a convenience store. While in line, Alexander looked down at the stained red splotches on his shoes. A crime lab tested the convenience store’s carpet for Brune’s blood, but none was found.
In a police interview, Alexander identified the shoes and jacket as his and claimed the clothes could be found in his apartment. Authorities were unable to find any of the clothes.
In 2021, a jury convicted Alexander of first-degree murder. A judge sentenced him to nearly 29 years in prison. At the time, his defense attorneys argued that evidence suppressed in the first trial would have led to jurors acquitting Alexander.
In April 2023, the appellate court held that the excluded evidence — someone else allegedly admitting to the murder and a diary entry dated the day of Brune’s death — should have been heard by jurors. That excluded evidence led to the state Court of Appeals overturning Alexander’s conviction.
At the scene, police found Brune’s diary in her purse. In an entry dated the night of her murder, there appeared to be a handwritten note dated at 10 p.m. — after Alexander was seen leaving the area.
The final entry read:
“I went to Rocky’s for the first time. He thinks it was me that took his (expletive), but I can tell Casey doesn’t think so and is trying to get me back.”
A week after her body was found, Brune’s boyfriend told police he ran into two people who lived in the same apartment complex as them and sold drugs to Brune. One of them allegedly described beating her to death in great detail. Brune’s body was found on the trail that led to that apartment.
Snohomish County Superior Court Judge George Appel excluded the testimony as hearsay based on the fact the woman who allegedly made the statements refused to testify, making her unavailable for cross-examination.
After reviewing 15½ hours of security footage from the apartment complex, detectives said three men appeared near the trail where Brune’s body was discovered. Police made a copy of the footage from 8 to 10 p.m., but when they attempted to locate additional footage, it was lost.
The second trial resulted in a hung jury, according to the Snohomish County Prosecutor’s Office Chief of Staff Michael Held. In order to avoid a third trial, the charge was lessened to second-degree murder.
In court documents, Alexander stated he pled guilty to the amended charge to “receive the benefit of the proposed plea bargain.”
The standard sentence range for this level of offense is 144 to 244 months and 36 months of community custody upon release, court documents said. As a class A felony, the maximum sentence is life with a fine of $50,000.
Jenna Millikan: 425-339-3035; jenna.millikan@heraldnet.com; X: @JennaMillikan
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