A Tacoma man who pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and assault for fatally shooting his girlfriend and then pointing the gun at one of her three children was sentenced Friday to 23 years, four months in prison.
Tellieun Marquez Harvey’s defense attorney, Jennifer Freeman, said her client had been diagnosed with schizophrenia a year before the shooting, was not on his medication and was actively psychotic when he shot and killed 24-year-old Elisia Simpson on May 16, 2022.
Freeman told the court she believed Simpson’s murder wouldn’t have occurred if Harvey had been taking his medications. Freeman said Harvey was having command hallucinations at the time telling him to kill the victim, and that he had to do so to get his soul back. She said her client acknowledged he will need to be on medication for the rest of his life.
Harvey’s mental competency to assist in his own defense was called into question during his criminal case, court records show, and a judge ordered him to undergo two 90-day periods of competency restoration at Western State Hospital before he was declared competent to proceed.