Jury says Washington Cop Murdered Unarmed Homeless Cambodian Man. Though He Faced No Threat, White Cop Shot Jesse Sarey, Then Reloaded and Shot Him Again in the Head While He was Lying on the Pavement

From [HERE] and [HERE] A jury found a suburban Seattle police officer guilty of murder Thursday in the 2019 shooting death of a homeless man outside a convenience store, marking the first conviction under a Washington state law easing prosecution of law enforcement officers for on-duty killings.

After deliberating for three days, the jury found Auburn Police Officer Jeffrey Nelson guilty of second-degree murder and first-degree assault for shooting Jesse Sarey twice while trying to arrest him for disorderly conduct. Deliberations had been halted for several hours Wednesday after the jury sent the judge an incomplete verdict form Tuesday saying they were unable to reach an agreement on one of the charges.

The judge revealed Thursday that the verdict the jury was struggling with earlier in the week was the murder charge. They had already reached agreement on the assault charge.

Nelson was ordered into custody after the hearing. He’s been on paid administrative leave since the shooting in 2019. The judge set sentencing for July 16. Nelson faces up to life in prison on the murder charge and up to 25 years for first-degree assault. His lawyer said she plans to file a motion for a new trial.

In 2019, Sarey was reportedly having a crisis and was allegedly throwing garbage, banging on store windows and kicking cars in an Auburn shopping area. Nelson claimed Sarey failed to comply with arrest, so he began punching Sarey numerous times in the head and upper body. Nelson then drew his gun and shot Sarey in the torso.

After Sarey fell onto the pavement, Nelson tried to fire his gun again before it jammed. The video then shows Nelson clearing the round, racking another bullet and firing a second shot into Sarey’s head.

The jurors rejected Nelson claim that Sarey tried to grab his gun and a knife, so he shot him in self-defense. In fact, video showed Sarey was on the ground reclining away from Nelson after the first shot.

A witness, Steven Woodard, testified that after the first shot, “Mr. Sarey was ‘done,’ lying on the ground in a nonthreatening position.”

Sarey’s family told The Associated Press (AP) he was the son of survivors of the Khmer Rouge genocide in Cambodia and became homeless after aging out of foster care.

“Jesse Sarey died because this defendant chose to disregard his training at every step of the way,” King County Special Prosecutor Patty Eakes told the jury in her closing argument Thursday. The shooting was “unnecessary, unreasonable and unjustified,” she said.

The case is the first of its kind in Washington as Nelson was the first police officer in King County to face murder charges and his case was also the first to be prosecuted under I-940, a police accountability measure passed in 2018.

The King County Prosecuting Attorney’s office thanked the jury for their efforts on the case, which has gone on for more than three weeks.

“We appreciate the hard work of all parties to get to these important verdicts,” spokesman Casey McNerthney said in an email. “All along we felt this was a case that needed to be tried before a jury. Our thoughts continue to be with Mr. Sarey’s loved ones.”

The case was the second to go to trial since Washington voters in 2018 removed a standard that required prosecutors to prove an officer acted with malice — a standard no other state had. Now they must show the level of force was unreasonable or unnecessary. In December, jurors acquitted three Tacoma police officers in the 2020 death of Manuel Ellis.

Auburn settled a civil rights claim by Sarey’s family for $4 million and has paid nearly $2 million more to settle other litigation over Nelson’s actions as a police officer.

KILLER COP KILLED 3 OTHER PEOPLE. Sarey was the third person Nelson has killed in his law enforcement career. Jurors did not hear evidence about Nelson’s prior uses of deadly force.

Prior to fatally shooting Sarey, Nelson killed Isaiah Obet in 2017. Obet was acting erratically, and Nelson ordered his police dog to attack. He then shot Obet in the torso. Obet fell to the ground, and Nelson fired again, fatally shooting Obet in the head. Police said the officer’s life was in danger because Obet was high on drugs and had a knife. The city reached a settlement of $1.25 million with Obet’s family.

In 2011, Nelson fatally shot Brian Scaman, a Vietnam War veteran with mental issues and a history of felonies, after pulling Scaman’s vehicle over for a burned-out headlight. Scaman got out of his car with a knife and refused to drop it; Nelson shot him in the head. An inquest jury cleared Nelson of wrongdoing.