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KENT, Wash. – A King County jury convicted Auburn police Officer Jeffrey Nelson of murder and assault Thursday for the 2019 shooting death of Jesse Sarey, a historic verdict that came under a law born from anguish and anger over unnecessary police violence.
The six-man, six-woman jury at the Maleng Regional Justice Center –deliberating just a few miles from the Auburn neighborhood grocery where Nelson fatally shot the 26-year-old, unarmed Sarey – spent almost four days weighing the second-degree murder and first-degree assault case.
The murder conviction carries a term of up to life in prison. First-degree assault is punishable by up to 25 years.
Nelson had no visible reaction as the verdicts were read. Some in the courtroom could be heard crying. When the judge announced that Nelson would be taken into custody until sentencing, the officer slumped in his chair. Sentencing was scheduled for July 16.
The defense plans to file a motion for a new trial.
The case represents a landmark in law-enforcement accountability in the state, as Nelson is the first police officer in Washington to be convicted of murder for on-duty actions.
Nelson, in his only statement – given weeks after the May 31, 2019 shooting and after he’d consulted with an attorney – claimed Sarey had tried to grab his gun. His attorneys, during arguments to the jury, said Nelson feared Sarey had gotten hold of a folding utility knife from his vest and was going to stab him.
However, the jury – after viewing surveillance footage of the shooting and hearing from two eyewitnesses – concluded that prosecutors had proven that Nelson ignored his training, violated department policy and broke the law he was sworn to uphold.
Nelson, 45, who shot the unarmed Sarey twice, faced the second-degree murder charge for the first shot, which was fired point-blank into Sarey’s abdomen and the medical examiner said was fatal. The first-degree assault charge was for the second shot, fired seconds later, into Sarey’s head.
Nelson was the first police officer charged under the provisions of Initiative 940, a sweeping series of police-accountability legal standards passed by Washington voters in 2018.
It changed the legal standard used to measure whether police use of deadly force was legal — removing language that made charging an officer almost impossible — and emphasizes de-escalation and crisis intervention.
Last year, three Tacoma police officers were acquitted at trial for the violent arrest and subsequent death of Manuel Ellis. The state Attorney General’s Office filed those murder charges and manslaughter charges after passage of I-940.
Ellis, 33, died in a south Tacoma intersection after struggling with officers and repeatedly telling them he couldn’t breathe. In that case, officers did not fire their weapons.
The last time an officer in Washington was convicted of state charges for an on-duty death was 1938. Three Seattle officers were convicted of manslaughter for the death of Berry Lawson, a 27-year-old hotel waiter. They were quickly pardoned by Gov. Clarence Martin and did not serve prison time.
Spokane officer Karl Thompson was convicted of federal civil rights charges in 2012 for the death of Otto Zehm, 36. He served a four-year sentence.
How the trial unfolded
While the Nelson prosecution took five weeks to present its case, introducing testimony from 28 witnesses and 110 exhibits, the defense called only two people to the stand, briefly.
Nelson did not testify.
During opening statements last month, the defense had said Nelson would tell jurors that he feared for his life and thought Sarey was going to stab him with the officer’s folding knife that had dropped from his uniform in the struggle.
In closing arguments, Nelson’s attorneys disputed, point by point, the state’s contention that the officer, who started with the Auburn Police Department in 2008, disregarded his training, department policy and the law on May 31, 2019, when he moved aggressively to arrest Sarey for misdemeanor disorderly conduct without waiting for backup. The result was a struggle that ended when Nelson shot Sarey once, paused to clear a gun malfunction, then shot him again.
An eyewitness, Steven Woodard, testified that during the struggle, he went over and picked up the knife after it fell from Nelson’s vest.
Sarey reached for or grabbed for Nelson’s gun, Woodard said during a series of interviews after the shooting and testimony during the trial. He described a violent encounter that Sarey at one point seemed to be winning, then Nelson repeatedly punching Sarey in the face, pinning him up against an ice machine outside the store’s entrance, pulling his .45 caliber handgun and shooting Sarey the first time.
Woodard said Sarey fell to the ground and evidence showed that Nelson cycled his handgun to clear the malfunction. According to Woodard and enhanced surveillance video shown to jurors, Nelson looked around after the first shot, caught Woodard’s eye, then turned back to Sarey and fired a bullet into his head nearly four seconds after the first shot.
Nelson was released on $500,000 bond and has been subject to an ankle monitor since he was charged in 2020. He has been on paid administrative leave from the department since then, earning a $100,000-plus annual salary.
Jury selection began in mid-April and the trial began May 16 with the testimony of the county’s video expert, Grant Fredericks, and the introduction of the grainy surveillance video that has been shown to the jury dozens of times and is key to the prosecution’s case.
During five weeks of testimony, the jury was repeatedly asked to leave the courtroom while the lawyers scrapped over admissibility and evidentiary issues, testing the patience of King County Superior Court Judge Nicole Gaines Phelps, who at one point threatened financial sanctions if the interruptions didn’t stop.
While the trial was held in the largest courtroom at the Maleng Regional Justice Center, its benches remained mostly empty. Elaine Simons, Sarey’s foster mother, was there every day and has been joined by other activists from police accountability circles, including Olympia attorney Leslie Cushman, the author of I-940, and Sonia Joseph, whose son, Giovonn Joseph-McDade, was killed by Kent police in 2017.
Nelson’s courtroom gallery has included a number of recognizable Auburn police officers, including Chief Mark Caillier, who sat behind Nelson in full uniform during closing arguments, and Cmdr. Cristian Adams, who had been listed as a defense witness.
Prosecutors have complained to the judge that the Auburn Police Department has obstructed and hindered the prosecution, which had to subpoena Caillier for five minutes of testimony to verify Nelson’s training records after the department’s training and designated records officer, Douglas Koch, stubbornly sidestepped questions about the records’ authenticity.
Over the years of delays, which included the pandemic, the judge has focused the trial on the interactions between Sarey and Nelson, to the exclusion of evidence that shows Nelson has a long and questionable history of using force, including two prior fatal shootings.
It was an independent investigation into the Sarey shooting led by the Port of Seattle Police Department that first brought the case to the attention of the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office. Concerns raised by video evidence and eyewitness statements were brought to the attention of then-Prosecuting Attorney Dan Satterberg, who assigned his chief deputy and the chief of the office’s criminal division to personally take the case.
Two years into the prosecution, Satterberg brought in two experienced outside attorneys to handle the prosecution, which led to further delays.
Nelson’s history on the job
In addition to shooting Sarey, Nelson killed 25-year-old Isaiah Obet on June 10, 2017. According to reports and court documents in a federal civil-rights lawsuit filed by Obet’s family, Nelson set his police dog on Obet — a suspect in a home invasion robbery — and then shot him as he struggled with the dog. Nelson then shot him a second time in the head.
The department awarded him the Medal of Valor for those actions.
In 2011, Nelson shot and killed Brian Scaman who, according to the court documents, “reportedly taunted him with a knife during a traffic stop.” When Scaman refused to drop the knife, Nelson shot him.
Obet’s family settled their lawsuit for $1.25 million just days before Nelson was charged. The city has since paid $4 million to settle a claim by Sarey’s family and $450,000 to a federal drug suspect Nelson ran down in his patrol car, breaking his legs.
Phelps, the judge in Nelson’s trial, ruled that the jury would not hear this evidence nor be allowed to see photographs of Nelson’s extensive body tattoos, which prosecutors believe gave a glimpse into aggressive policing. At the same time, Phelps ruled that Nelson’s attorneys would not be allowed to present evidence of Sarey’s extensive criminal history and drug use.
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