A 25-year-old man who told a homeless Tacoma man he had 72 hours to get him $2,500 for drugs he believed were owed to him — then immediately shot the man dead — has been sentenced to prison.
Jarmal Okim Packard was sentenced Thursday in Pierce County Superior Court to 20 years for the Nov. 21, 2022 fatal shooting of Michael Perdue, 39, at a homeless encampment in Tacoma’s Dome District. Judge Shelly Speir-Moss handed down the punishment after Packard pleaded guilty the same day to second-degree murder with a firearm sentencing enhancement and second-degree assault.
Packard’s sentence was in line with prosecutors’ recommendation, according to court records, a standard-range sentence toward the low end for defendants in similar cases. Packard’s criminal history includes a 2017 conviction for assault with a deadly weapon in California.
Charges of first-degree murder, first-degree robbery and unlawful possession of a firearm were dropped in the Tacoma case as part of a plea agreement. Prosecutors wrote in court filings that the agreement held the defendant accountable with a serious felony charge and a substantial prison sentence while also alleviating the need for a trial.