TACOMA, Wash. — Former NBA All-Star Shawn Kemp was sentenced to 30 days of electronic home monitoring and 13 months of community custody for his role in a 2023 shooting.
Prosecutors asked for Kemp, 55, to spend 9 months in jail. The standard range is 3-9 months.
I cannot state strongly enough that this could have been easily avoided by simply walking away,” said Judge Michael Schwartz.
Kemp was arrested after a shooting in the parking lot of the Tacoma mall in March 2023.
State prosecutors argued that there was no evidence the theft suspects fired shots, and therefore Kemp’s returning fire was not in self-defense.
Schwartz said there is evidence that one of the occupants fired, and that Kemp said he heard a shot from inside the car
The judge added that police found a holster wedged in the dashboard.
Earlier this year, Kemp reached a plea agreement with prosecutors that reduced the charge from first-degree assault to second-degree assault.
RELATED | Shawn Kemp pleads guilty to 2nd-degree assault, avoiding trial in Tacoma shooting
According to court records, Kemp fired four rounds from a .357 magnum revolver at two men who he believed had stolen his phone in a car burglary in Seattle earlier in the day.
Police alleged that Kemp then threw the gun into a nearby bush and did not initially inform officers he had fired the weapon.
Prosecutors asked Judge Michael E. Schwartz to impose a sentence of nine months in jail.
Kemp claimed he had been shot at first by someone inside the car.
RELATED | Former SuperSonics all-star Shawn Kemp arrested in connection to Tacoma drive-by shooting
Kemp’s defense attorneys argued that the men whom Kemp shot at — later identified as Dajuan Jackson and Joshua Puente — had stolen his cell phone earlier in the day.
[Jackson and Puente] have no less than 49 and 24 criminal convictions across a multitude of jurisdictions in the Puget Sound region,” defense attorney Timothy Leary wrote in a pre-sentence memo. “Their trail of destruction goes back years and seems to only be interrupted by frequent periods of incarceration.”
According to Leary’s memo, Jackson and Puente broke into cars outside of a celebration that Kemp was attending with employees of his cannabis business in Seattle’s SODO neighborhood.
Driving a stolen Toyota 4Runner, they targeted Mr. Kemp’s truck for their next score. As Jackson explained in a matter-of-fact fashion, they were out of funds, so they turned to vehicle prowling for money,” Leary wrote.
They wanted to go to Tacoma, but had no money for gas,” Leary continued. “They broke a window and stole a purse belonging to one of Kemp’s employees, the keys to his business, a cell phone, paperwork, and significant amounts of memorabilia.”
Leary said in addition to Kemp’s cell phone, Jackson and Puente stole game-worn jerseys from Kemp and former NBA player Gary Payton that were going to be auctioned for charity.
“Understandably, Mr. Kemp was frustrated, disappointed, and frankly hurt,” Leary wrote. “He knew that with Seattle police resources stretched thin in 2023, calling 911 was not going to elicit a response to a car prowl. A fact that was probably not lost on Jackson and Puente.”
RELATED | SuperSonics legend Shawn Kemp faces sentencing for assault in Tacoma mall shooting case
Leary said Kemp used an app to track his stolen cell phone, which led him to confront Puente in the parking lot of a casino.
Leary said Puente and Jackson feared they were being tracked after the confrontation and then started throwing stolen items out of their car.
Kemp later tracked the phone to the parking lot of the Tacoma Mall. He went to the location of the phone and saw the same Toyota 4Runner from the confrontation at the casino.
In his memo, Leary maintained that Puente fired the first round at Kemp and Kemp returned fire.
Jackson and Puente left the scene in the 4Runner, and police contacted Kemp in the parking lot.
Leary asked Judge Schwartz to release Kemp without having to serve time in jail.
“Before this court for sentencing is a pillar of the community who has not spent his life victimizing fellow citizens like Mr. Jackson and Mr. Puentes,” Leary wrote. “Mr. Kemp regrets the choices that he made the afternoon of March 8, 2023.”
“He will forever be a convicted felon, something that he was not for the first 55 years of his life,” Leary continued. “Returning him to the Pierce County Jail for a sentence of somewhere between three and nine months is not what these set of facts requires.”
Jackson, who is currently incarcerated in a Washington prison, said the shooting “forced him to accept his own mortality” in a letter to the court.
“I prayed for the angels to come and take me into heaven as well as the protection of my young children in the absence of me, their father,” Jackson wrote.
Kemp played 14 seasons of professional basketball and spent more than half of his career with the Seattle SuperSonics, leading the team to an NBA finals appearance in the 1995-96 season. Kemp is a six-time NBA all-star and played for the Sonics, Cleveland, Portland, and Orlando.
More recently, in 2020, Kemp opened a cannabis shop located in Seattle’s Belltown neighborhood, and then a second location in 2023 in Seattle’s SODO neighborhood.
While his guilty plea puts his cannabis retail license at risk, state regulators may also allow him to continue running his business despite the conviction.
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