Man gets 31½ years for shooting Everett motel guest 12 times

EVERETT — A Marysville man must serve 31½ years behind bars for a robbery in which he shot a man 12 times, a Snohomish County judge has ruled.

Harry Lee Jones Jr., 27, was part of a trio who held a motel guest hostage on May 16, 2018. They confronted him in a parking lot off Evergreen Way, and forced him back into his room at gunpoint.

According to court papers, Jones beat the man with the butt of his pistol, while two accomplices — Misty Krum and Devon Evans — rounded things up to steal in the room at the Farwest Motel. The gunman ordered the motel guest to get into the bathtub. The guest feared he’d be shot and killed there, so he lunged at the gunman.

Jones opened fire. The motel guest fell to the floor, and Jones shot him 11 more times, according to charges. The man suffered 24 entry and exit wounds from bullets. He’d been shot once in the head, twice in the chest, in both arms and at least once in the back. His femur was shattered.

The trio reportedly fled the motel with the stolen loot and left the victim lying on the floor. Prosecutors wrote that it was “miraculous” the gravely wounded man survived.

Jones was arrested hours later in the same south Everett neighborhood. Police caught him trying to run across a school playfield with a cast on his leg.

Police were told Krum, now 31, hatched the plan for the robbery. She reportedly told people the victim had her car, lots of money and “kilos” of drugs. She was sentenced to about 3½ years in prison. Evans, now 26, was sentenced to 1½ years behind bars.

In September 2019, Jones pleaded guilty to first-degree assault and first-degree robbery. He had a past criminal record with convictions for assault in the fourth degree, disorderly conduct, unlawful possession of a firearm and failure to register as a sex offender.

Sentencing was delayed because Jones filed a motion to withdraw his guilty plea, claiming his defense attorneys were ineffective.

“Truth (is) I’m a Twenty-Six (26) year old high school drop out who could probably defend my case better than all the attorneys who have spared my case a (moment’s) notice,” he wrote in March 2020.

Snohomish County Superior Court Judge Edirin Okoloko ultimately denied the motion in March 2021, and sentenced Jones earlier this month.

Defense attorney Ann Mahony had asked the judge to impose 20 years of prison time for Jones — a sentence below state guidelines for someone with Jones’ criminal record. The defendant spent most of his adult life in confinement, Mahony wrote in a sentencing memorandum filed in Superior Court. Mahony argued her suggested sentence was justified given the defendant’s troubled past and the fact that, at the time of the crime, he was not the “typical” 24-year-old man.

“Harry had a childhood of our nightmares,” Mahony wrote. “Without any parental guidance, the school system did not nearly meet his needs.”

Deputy prosecutor Bob Langbehn asked the judge to hand down a 31½ year sentence.

In the state’s sentencing memorandum, Langbehn wrote, “though the defendant did not come up with the initial plan, it was clear from everyone involved that he was in charge once it was implemented.”

Ellen Dennis: 425-339-3486; edennis@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @reporterellen