Man gets life for stabbing to death Johnston Sonic worker over harassment of granddaughter

A Des Moines man who stabbed a Sonic restaurant worker to death last year during an alleged confrontation over sexual harassment of his granddaughter, also an employee there, has been sentenced to life in prison ― the second time in 10 years he has received that sentence.

Spencer Pierce, 56, went to the Sonic in Johnston on March 7, 2022, to confront a coworker of his granddaughter who'd been sending harassing messages and the coworker's friend, 20-year-old Jermaine Whitaker Moses. When the two arrived for work, Pierce pursued the other worker outside and then back into the kitchen area, where he encountered Moses, first punching and then stabbing him with a folding knife.

Moses died later at a hospital, leaving two young children behind. Police arrested Pierce early the following day. The worker reportedly responsible for the harassing messages was not charged, as prosecutors said the family declined to cooperate with an investigation.

Pierce went to trial late last fall, representing himself, and argued Moses had threatened him and his granddaughter and that the stabbing was justified. But another Sonic employee standing just feet away testified she had heard no such threats, and surveillance video did not show, as Pierce claimed, that Moses had punched him first. The jury found Pierce guilty of first-degree murder as well as burglary and weapon charges.

It was the second time a jury has convicted Pierce of murder. He was previously sentenced to life in prison for a 2013 shooting connected to a drug robbery. That conviction was overturned on appeal in 2015.

Pierce has additional past convictions on drug, robbery and theft charges, and had been paroled less than a year before his arrest in the Sonic stabbing.

Pierce sentenced to life without parole

Pierce filed a number of post-trial motions arguing for a new trial, claiming the court violated his right to a speedy trial and ignored evidence that he'd been invited into the Sonic prior to the attack, contradicting the state's claim that he committed burglary by entering the restaurant without permission during the assault. In court Wednesday, he made those arguments again, and again Judge Lawrence McLellan denied his motions to set aside the verdict.

For the sentencing itself, Pierce declined to make any statement or recommendation, while prosecutor Mike Salvner asked McLellan to impose the mandatory life sentence, with concurrent prison sentences for the burglary and weapon charges. Salvner said that "the defendant’s criminal record ... does not warrant any leniency."

With Moses' mother watching and visibly tearful via videoconference, McLellan sentenced Pierce to life without parole. He also must pay $150,000 in restitution to Moses' family.

Pierce, who is Black, has indicated he plans to appeal. In addition to his speedy trial and evidentiary arguments, his court-appointed standby attorney had previously said he could appeal based on the racial makeup of the jury pool at his trial.

Granddaughter later convicted of smuggling drugs to Pierce in jail

Pierce is one of several people to face charges related to the attack.

His granddaughter was charged after his trial with burglary and murder, but a judge dismissed the charges, finding insufficient factual basis to provide probable cause.

In court filings and at Wednesday's hearing, Pierce said she, as well as a Sonic manager, were charged after his conviction with conspiracy to commit a forcible felony, which he argued constituted new evidence supporting his contention he had been invited into the store.

Salvner responded that neither was accused of giving Pierce permission to enter or commit violence there, and that White was charged because he had advised Pierce in advance on where to beat up the victims outside the store to avoid the surveillance cameras. Filings for both conspiracy cases could not be located in online court records.

Salvner also said Wednesday that while in custody, Pierce conspired with his granddaughter on a recorded jail phone line to smuggle drugs into the Polk County jail by concealing them in legal mail, and that the granddaughter was subsequently charged with and pleaded guilty to drug counts in juvenile court. While records of any juvenile charges are sealed, online court records do contain a search warrant application in which jail officials describe receiving a package of legal mail for Pierce before his trial that they found to contain baggies of methamphetamine taped to several of the pages.

This article has been corrected to reflect who was accused of sexually harassing Spencer Pierce's granddaughter, and whom he confronted and chased at the Johnston Sonic store.

William Morris covers courts for the Des Moines Register. He can be contacted at wrmorris2@registermedia.com, 715-573-8166 or on Twitter at @DMRMorris.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Des Moines man gets life term for stabbing Sonic worker over granddaughter's harassment