Her lies ended a gruesome Tacoma murder trial. Now she's been sentenced

TACOMA, Wash. — Crystal Jackson’s lies will send her to prison for a long time.

Pierce County Superior Court Judge Stanley Rumbaugh gave her a high-end sentence Wednesday of 26 years, eight months for the gruesome death of Jesus Isidor-Mendoza. Court records say the teen was raped, drowned and dismembered at Jackson’s home in October 2014, four months before his remains were found in a Tacoma ravine.

His murder was a crime of “exceptional cruelty,” the judge said, that “was fueled by animus, I think — misdirected animus toward Mr. Mendoza.”

The sentence was far longer than the two years or so 33-year-old Jackson had expected after a plea agreement. Earlier this month Rumbaugh decided she'd violated the agreement with prosecutors by repeatedly lying about the circumstances of Mendoza's death.

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“She’s a horrible monster in society,” Maria Mendoza, his mother, told the court before sentencing. “She has no value.”

Nearly four years after 18-year-old Mendoza was killed, Jackson is the first and only person his family has seen sentenced for murder.

“This case probably more than any other has haunted me,” deputy prosecutor Jared Ausserer told the judge, because of what the victim’s mother has had to endure.

She was there for the murder trial of Jackson's two codefendants — until Jackson's lies prompted a mistrial.

And she was there for a hearing that spanned multiple days through the past year, as attorneys argued about whether Jackson’s lies breached her plea agreement.

“Ms. Mendoza had to watch this, every day,” Ausserer said. “... She’s been present at every hearing.”

He said Jackson had manipulated the justice system, and called her actions a “charade.”

And through it all: “How he was killed, I’m still not confident that anybody knows,” Ausserer said.

Except Jackson.

Mendoza’s killing had to do with stolen drug proceeds, prosecutors contend. Jackson has said her co-defendents — Wallace Jackson, 51, and Darrel Daves, 53 — thought he stole $5,000 from her, that they took it out on him and that she did not tell them to do so.

She told Rumbaugh she was remorseful, but not a murderer.

“I deeply apologize for what happened that day at my house,” Jackson said. “I didn’t intend for anyone to get hurt, period.”

The judge acknowledged her apology, but said it “pales to the seemingly endless series of lies” she told about Mendoza’s death.

Those lies included details such as whether Jackson knew Mendoza, whether she had a photo of his body on her cellphone and whether she left her house the night of the attack, prosecutors argued.

As part of her plea deal, Jackson originally pleaded guilty to murder and second-degree manslaughter. The agreement was that she would be sentenced only for the lesser crime, in exchange for testifying against the others.

But after her lies led to the mistrial for her codefendants, Ausserer asked Rumbaugh to rule she had broken the agreement, and therefore should be sentenced for first-degree murder.

“Taken together, the cumulative effect of Ms. Jackson’s lies would wholly undermine the state’s case,” the judge’s Aug. 3 ruling said. “Ms. Jackson unquestionably breached her plea agreement.”

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In the end, Jackson’s co-defendants got far less time than she did.

After the mistrial, Wallace Jackson was sentenced to three years, seven months after he pleaded guilty to rendering criminal assistance, and Daves was sentenced to five years after he pleaded guilty to witness tampering.

Mendoza’s mother told the court she forgives Crystal Jackson in the name of her only son, who she said was her first born, and the family’s protector.

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But she also said Jackson “has the ability to speak and to lie whenever it is convenient to her.”

Rumbaugh told Mendoza he was sorry for her loss, and thanked her for her poise.

“It would be difficult beyond comprehension to be in the position that you are in,” he said.

Defense attorney Walter Peale told the judge there was no doubt the teen’s death was horrific, but that Jackson had not lied about the “essential facts of the case,” and that she does not have a violent background.

He also told Rumbaugh that Jackson has significant mental health issues, and that there was no direct evidence she meant the slaying to happen.

“How do I know she didn’t kill him?” Rumbaugh asked.

The judge said the only evidence he could see that she wasn’t directly involved was her own statement.

“Which I have a hard time believing,” he added.

KIRO