Third trial against suspected getaway driver in Lakewood police killings ends in hung jury

TACOMA, Wash. – The second retrial for a man accused of being a getaway driver for Maurice Clemmons, who killed four Lakewood police officers in 2009, has ended with a second grand jury. hanged.

The judge declared a trial false on Thursday, scheduling a new trial to begin April 20.

Darcus Allen drove Clemmons to and from the cafe in Parkland, where Clemmons fatally shot Sergeant Lakewood. Mark Renninger and officers Greg Richards, Tina Griswold and Ronald Owens as they sat down to prepare for their Sunday morning shift.

Darcus Allen was initially charged and convicted of four counts of first-degree murder in 2011. However, the jury acquitted him of four “death penalty aggravating circumstances”, alleging that Allen knew the victims would be police officers and that there were multiple victims or murders planned. Those factors will result in an automatic sentence of life in prison.

The Washington State Supreme Court overturned Allen’s murder conviction in 2015 after finding the prosecutor at his trial had made “inappropriate statements” in the final argument. In a 2018 decision, the state Supreme Court also found that Allen could not be retried for aggravating circumstances of the death penalty because he had previously been acquitted.

Allen was retried on four counts of first-degree murder related to his role in the murders beginning in October 2022. That trial ended with a jury being hanged on November.

Allen and his attorney initially tried to dismiss the new charges, claiming that they would violate the double jeopardy clause, however, the petition was rejected by the state court of first instance and appeals court. rejected, and the state Supreme Court declined to review the case. A petition for federal habeas relief was also denied.