Everett man gets nearly 30 years for stomping woman to death

EVERETT — An Everett man was sentenced Thursday to nearly 29 years in prison for the “savage” stomping murder of an Everett woman.

One week after a jury convicted him, Jamel Alexander’s defense attorneys maintained he would have been acquitted if jurors knew about “crucial evidence” they weren’t allowed to see.

Superior Court Judge George Appel sternly disagreed.

“You took her life in the most demeaning and savage way you could manage,” Appel told the defendant Thursday. “The jury did not make a mistake. There is no reasonable doubt. You murdered Shawna Brune.”

The victim’s cousin, Jessie Brune, said many of the sordid details that came out in the trial did not capture the person Shawna Brune, 29, was for the rest of her life.

“She wasn’t just a sex worker and addict,” Jessie Brune said. “… She was a human being, a beautiful person and a light in our family.”

At 9 a.m. Oct. 12, 2019, a man walking his dog found Brune’s battered body near a parking lot off the 11600 block of Highway 99, according to documents filed in Snohomish County Superior Court.

Brune was nude. Shoe prints marked her body in a crosshatch pattern. An autopsy showed she suffered broken facial bones and brain swelling, according to a report by Snohomish County Medical Examiner Dr. J. Matthew Lacy.

Security footage showed Brune going into the woods that night near the Cedar Creek apartment complex down the street at 9:02 p.m. with a man in a maroon Puma jacket and knit cap with an Oakland Raiders logo. The pair reportedly walked down the driveway to the south side of the parking lot and disappeared behind a parked van, out of sight of the camera. The man re-emerged from the woods 31 minutes later, this time alone, and without the Raiders hat.

The next morning, detectives found the Raiders cap near Brune’s body.

With the help of other security footage, detectives identified Alexander, 31, as the suspect. He later told sheriff’s detectives he paid Brune $100 for a sex act that night, but that he did not harm her.

Alexander’s DNA was found on the hat, along with Brune’s blood, according to prosecutors. Alexander’s DNA was also found on Brune’s sweater dress and bra that had been ripped off her.

Alexander was found guilty of first-degree murder.

Defense attorneys argued the jury would not have convicted him had they been shown two pieces of evidence: Brune’s diary, which was found in her purse near the crime scene, and an alleged confession by two people who knew Brune.

Judge Appel did not allow that evidence to be put in front of the jury, ruling that it was hearsay.

The diary had an entry from 10 p.m. Oct. 11, 2019. The defense argued this proved Brune was alive after Alexander left the scene at around 9:30 p.m.

Deputy prosecutor Craig Matheson said there was no question that the diary belonged to Brune, but it should not have been considered at trial because she was not alive to testify about it.

An Everett couple who knew Brune allegedly admitted to the murder in a conversation with her former boyfriend. The ex-boyfriend notified detectives and wrote a witness statement about what he claimed to have heard, under penalty of perjury.

Defense attorney Rachel Forde filed a motion for a new trial with a new set of jurors.

“The court’s rulings hamstringed defense attorneys’ efforts to present a defense, leaving the jurors distrustful of the limited evidence that defense counsel was allowed to elicit,” Forde wrote.

After the trial, defense attorneys asked jurors whether it would have made a difference if they had seen the excluded evidence, according to the motion. At least two jurors responded that they “could not say for sure whether it would have impacted the verdict,” but “had questions about why they were not allowed to see it,” Forde wrote.

Judge Appel dismissed Forde’s motion last week.

Matheson, the deputy prosecutor, said the overwhelming evidence presented by the state left no doubt about Alexander’s guilt. He said he believed the state’s case was strong enough that inclusion of the omitted evidence would not have changed the jury’s mind.

“It was a methodical, forensic exploration of this guy’s guilt,” Matheson said. “We were very confident going into the trial that the jury would come out like they did.”

Matheson also noted that attorneys argued at length at the outset of the trial to decide what evidence could be presented to the jury.

“This was no spur-of-the-moment ruling by the judge,” Matheson said. “Any narrative that this was done without thought, or done contrary to law, was false.”

Security footage from the night of the crime showed Alexander glancing down at red stains on his Vans Old Skool sneakers — with a crosshatch tread — at a convenience store 1½ miles north of the crime scene.

Detectives believe it was Brune’s blood. By the time they caught up to him, Alexander had gotten rid of the shoes, as well as the Puma jacket. He later told investigators the stain came from a spilled red energy drink.

Under state guidelines, Alexander faced a range of 26⅔ to 28 years and 11 months behind bars. The defense asked the judge for a sentence at the low end of the range, and the state asked for a term at the high end.

The judge sided with the state.

A few of Brune’s family members attended the three-week murder trial.

Brune’s father and stepmother reminisced about her life in a letter they wrote to be read aloud in court Thursday. The couple said Brune, who struggled with drug addiction in her final years, deserved more time to turn her life around.

“Shawna was a beautiful girl who loved camping, fishing, swimming and hiking in the woods that surrounded her town,” they wrote. “Shawna never got the chance to be sober. She had tried four times in the six years that she used. The fifth time might have stuck. But we have now been robbed of that chance.”

Ellen Dennis: 425-339-3486; edennis@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @reporterellen