Tacoma man was punched, killed with his own knife. The suspect pleaded guilty to murder
A 43-year-old man convicted of stabbing a person to death after taking his knife in a fight near People’s Park in Tacoma was sentenced Friday to 17 years in prison.
David Henderson pleaded guilty in June to second-degree murder and third-degree assault in the Sept. 5, 2019 killing of Jahleen Mitchell. According to court documents, a fight broke out between the two men, and a large knife fell from Mitchell’s backpack. The victim tried to walk away but tripped, and Henderson punched him multiple times and stabbed him in the chest.
Superior Court Judge Jennifer Andrews ordered Henderson to serve 17 years, 2 months in prison. Defendants tried in similar cases are typically sentenced to between about 14 years and 23 years in prison.
The defendant has five prior felony convictions in Pierce County, including a 1999 conviction for second-degree assault and a 2006 conviction for attempted second-degree assault, according to court records.
Based on these convictions, Henderson was at one point a candidate for sentencing under Washington’s three strikes law, which would mean a mandatory sentence of life in prison without parole. But according to state law, because Henderson’s attempted assault conviction is a lesser felony and he did not have any convictions for five years, it no longer counts as part of his criminal history.
When Henderson was arraigned, family of the victim said Mitchell moved to the United States from Jamaica when he was 6, and that he grew up in Tacoma before graduating from Mount Tahoma High School, according to previous reporting from The News Tribune. He at one point worked as a military police officer, family said. He was described as a loving father to his then 8-year-old daughter.
In a victim impact statement submitted to the court, Mitchell’s younger brother, Alex Thomas, wrote that Jahleen was a source of courage to him and a man with a big heart. He said his brother was known to give his own clothing to people in need.
“You took my brother, a father a cousin, someone’s son, and military police officer, a hero to some, a person who would give you the clothes off his back to be cold so you could have been warm.”
Court documents don’t make clear what led to the fight between Mitchell and Henderson. A witness told Tacoma Police Department detectives that the men began arguing inside the park.
Surveillance video from a nearby building showed Mitchell walking through the park at about 12:47 p.m. while Henderson and an unidentified man ran around and in front of him to cut him off, according to the declaration for determination of probable cause. At the intersection of South 10th and L streets, Henderson can be seen with a knife.
“The victim is walking backwards away from Henderson and trips and falls to the ground on his back in the middle of the intersection,” documents describing the video state. “Henderson then approaches and stands over the victim, and begins punching him with his left hand.”
Mitchell was able to get to his feet, and Henderson stabbed him, records say. Mitchell started to run, and Henderson chased him until the victim stopped on a sidewalk while clutching his chest. His attacker walked away.
