Pierce County Superior Court Judge Alicia Marie Burton last week sentenced Lars Eugene Nelson to 90 months in prison for shooting and killing Sophie Tinney, 27, at a home on Fox Island in April 2025.
Nelson pleaded guilty to second-degree murder under an agreement between Pierce County prosecutors and his attorneys. Both sides recommended the 90-month sentence (seven and a half years), below the standard sentencing range of 123 to 220 months for second-degree murder.
In documents filed in Superior Court, the attorneys argued that the lower sentence is justified because Nelson never wanted to kill Tinney. In fact, she worked for months to talk him into it, according to prosecutors and defense attorney Michael Austin Stewart.
Anti-natalism and negative utilitarianism
Negative utilitarianism, according to documents filed with the court by Stewart, is “the idea that reducing suffering was the paramount objective. Sophie believed that life was suffering and she wanted to end hers.”…