Court Upholds Appeal For Maurice Clemmons' Alleged Getaway Driver (Darcus Dewayne Allen)

LAKEWOOD, WA — Darcus Dewayne Allen will not face aggravated murder charges for his role as getaway driver when in late November 2009 Maurice Clemmons murdered four Lakewood police officers at the Forza coffee shop in Tacoma (now called BlueSteele Coffee). The Washington Supreme Court on Thursday said retrying Allen for aggravated murder, since he was already acquitted by jury on those specific charges, would be tantamount to double jeopardy.

Allen was previously convicted on four counts of first-degree murder and sentenced to 420 years in prison. An appeal hearing, however, overturned the ruling based on prosecutorial misconduct; a retrial for the first-degree murder charges was set at that time and Pierce County prosecutors tried to lobby for the aggravated murder charges again, which, if convicted, would have condemned Allen to a mandatory life sentence with no chance for parole.

Allen has reportedly pleaded not guilty to his role in transporting Clemmons to the Forza coffee shop on the morning of Nov. 29, 2009, where Clemmons shot and killed Lakewood police Sgt. Mark Renninger and officers Tina Griswold, Ronald Owens, and Gregory Richards, who prior to his death struggled with Clemmons and shot him in the back.

Despite the Washington Supreme Court's 8-0 ruling in Allen's favor regarding the aggravated murder charges, his retrial for the first-degree murder charges could still see him spend the rest of his life in prison. Allen's next court dates are scheduled for February 2019.  (Patch, December 13, 2018)
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