PUYALLUP, Wash. — This story was originally published on MyNorthwest.com.
A Puyallup Tribe member was sentenced to 13 years in prison after he was found guilty of shooting someone he considered a friend.
Dennis Jacobsen, 32, was initially arrested on October 21, 2021, nearly three years before he pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and using a firearm during a “crime of violence.”
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“This is a tragic story of illicit drug use and a firearm,” U.S. District Judge Benjamin H. Settle said. “The lives of the loved ones of the victim will carry this loss for years.”
Jacobsen and the victim had allegedly been drinking and using drugs the morning of the tragic shooting, according to records filed in the case. The victim was last seen outside a home in the Puyallup reservation. According to witness statements in the court documents, the two men walked behind the home and three gunshots were heard. Witnesses then saw Jacobsen run from the house, get in a vehicle and drive away.
The victim was found shot once in the arm and twice in the head.
Officers found the gun used in the shooting at Jacobsen’s residence with one bullet still in the chamber. The ammunition matched the type of ammunition used in the shooting.
“The impact of (the victim’s) killing has been felt deeply in the community. His girlfriend was pregnant with his son at the time of the killing,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Todd Greenberg wrote to the court when asking for a 15-year sentence. “She can now only show her son the photographs of his father. (The victim’s) parents are now without a son and the greater Puyallup community has lost another tribal member to a violent tragedy.”
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Once Jacobsen’s 13-year sentence is over, he will be on five years of supervised release.
Frank Sumrall is a content editor at MyNorthwest and producer of the Seattle Seahawks podcast, The Reset with Gee Scott. You can read his stories here and you can email him here.