LAKE STEVENS — A jury convicted a former Monroe prison guard Tuesday of shooting and killing his roommate in Lake Stevens.
After a trial that lasted over three weeks in Snohomish County Superior Court, jurors began deliberating around 4 p.m. Friday. At 11:15 a.m. Tuesday, they found Emmanuel Perez, 48, guilty of second-degree murder for the May 2021 killing.
In June 2021, prosecutors charged Perez with first-degree murder. Judge Karen Moore instructed jurors to consider the lesser charges of second-degree murder, first-degree manslaughter and second-degree manslaughter, if they did not see conclusive evidence of first-degree murder.
Perez argued the shooting was in self-defense. The jury disagreed.
Perez had worked as a Department of Corrections officer for 14 years. After the shooting, he was placed on unpaid administrative leave.
Around 9 a.m. May 24, Perez was in the living room with his roommate Terrance Moore at the Colonial Gardens apartments in Lake Stevens, according to court documents.
The defense argued the victim attacked first by almost shooting Perez with a shotgun. Prosecutors countered there was no physical evidence that Terrance Moore ever had a gun.
Perez and Terrance Moore had been drinking and using drugs for 14 hours before the shooting, court papers said. They smoked meth on the couch together from 6 to 9 a.m. Perez did not sleep that night, the defense wrote in court documents.
Perez’s lawyer, John Chase, wrote that his client talked to Terrance Moore about needing to “clean up their lives,” he wrote in court documents. The conversation turned into an argument. Chase claimed Terrance Moore pushed Perez and grabbed a shotgun from the corner of the room.
Perez reported he tried to wrestle a shotgun away from Terrance Moore, his attorney wrote. Terrance Moore allegedly pulled the trigger, and the blast just missed Perez. Chase wrote that Terrance Moore lunged for the couch where he kept a handgun. Perez shot the victim, then ran from the apartment.
Prosecutors agreed Terrance Moore was likely first shot while on or near the couch.
After going outside his car, Perez saw the victim coming around the corner. He shot him again, according to the charges.
At trial, Perez testified he never called for help or medical attention, deputy prosecutor Jason Slaybaugh said in an email. Perez also testified after he had already shot Terrance Moore, he took the time to stop at his car to reload.
Terrance Moore, 35, died at the scene. The Snohomish County Medical Examiner’s Office determined he had been shot seven times in the neck, chest and leg, according to the charges.
Witnesses reported seeing Perez walk to the parking lot of the nearby Buzz Inn Steakhouse, about a block away, before police arrested him. He had a silver-and-black Kahr .40-caliber pistol and a knife, court papers said.
“Any holes in me?” Perez asked officers while being arrested.
Detectives found bullet casings in the apartment and the parking lot. Police also found a Winchester Model 370 shotgun inside the apartment that had been fired at least once, damaging a wall, court documents said. A forensic scientist tested the shotgun for fingerprints, court documents said. Only Perez’s fingerprints were found on the gun.
A sentencing date was set for July 22.
Jonathan Tall: 425-339-3486; jonathan.tall@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @snocojon.
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