— Moses Lake, WA
Zachary Skone of Warden was found guilty in the 2018 shooting at Montlake Park in Moses Lake. He was sentenced on Wednesday to 22 years in prison.
A jury previously found Skone guilty of the first-degree assault with a firearm enhancement, along with two counts of first-degree unlawful possession of a firearm and one count of attempting to bribe a witness. Skone was charged by the verdict by not guilty on a charge of first-degree robbery, according to Grant County court records.
Skone turned down a plea agreement prior to his trial back in July. The plea agreement included a recommendation of less than 10 years in prison.
MLPD stated that Skone was hiding in the bushes along Montlake Park on Jan. 14, 2018 when the then at the time 18-year-old victim had agreed to meet a 17-year-old to sell the person prescription codeine syrup. As the two met near what turned out to be Skone’s white, single-cab pickup truck, Skone came out of the bushes and shot the victim, according to Grant County court records.
On Jan. 13 Skone had been contacted by officers and was known to drive a white, single-cab pickup truck the same one at the incident at Mont Lake. Skone was taken into custody Jan. 15 and his truck was recovered from a home near Warden.
During his time in jail, jail staff found that Skone had also used other inmates in attempts to tamper and bribe the victim. Investigators intercepted a number of jail phone recordings, and Skone used someone to pass on a message to the shooting victim, claiming the victim would be paid $10,000USD if he did not show up to testify in the trial.
Jail records dated that on Dec. 2, 2018, Skone had performed more than two dozen violations in jail which the jail staff stated that it’s a
“complete disregard for the rules and regulations of the facility.”