SEATTLE — The “three strikes, you’re out,” legislation is designed to keep the community safe by locking up the most violent repeat offenders for life.
But what happens if the law fails?
That’s what one western Washington woman says happened, when prosecutors said her grandmother was murdered at the hands of a career criminal.
“I think about it every day,” said Melanie Roberts, reflecting on the worst day of her life.
“All I could think about, is she was gone,” Melanie said.
Melanie’s grandmother, 80-year-old Ruth Dalton, was murdered in broad daylight August 20, 2024.
Dalton was sitting in her car full of dogs, preparing to start her workday as a dogwalker, when a man jumped into the passenger side and tried to force her out of her car.
Ultimately, the man overpowered Dalton, she went tumbling onto the road and the carjacker ran her over, crushing her with her own car as he escaped
Dalton’s dog, Prince, was found soon thereafter, stabbed to death in a recycling bin at a nearby park.
Dalton’s car was there too, and so was her cellphone – covered in the suspect’s fingerprints.
Those prints led police to 48-year-old Jahmed Haynes.
He was arrested the next day with a knife covered in blood, and a set of car keys belonging to Dalton’s car.
The details of the case are horrific and haunting.
As for Haynes, this is just the latest in a long list of crimes and convictions from his past.
Haynes is an eight-time convicted felon. His rap sheet includes vehicular homicide, multiple stolen cars, drug crimes, robbery, running from police, custodial assault and attempted escape from prison.
Yet, despite those eight felonies, Haynes never triggered the state’s three-strike law, officially called the “Persistent Offender Accountability Act.”
The law has been in effect since 1993, providing prosecutors with a means to hold the most violent repeat offenders accountable, sentencing them to life in prison if convicted of a third most serious offense.
Among the “strikeable” offenses: murder, homicide, manslaughter, assault, kidnapping, rape, child rape, child molestation, robbery, burglary, arson, treason, vehicular homicide and assault, domestic violence felonies, extortion and felony sex offenses.
Of Haynes’ felony convictions, two counted as strikes.
But according to court documents, he could have had a third; 21-years before Ruth Dalton’s death.
“The state of Washington and Snohomish County, they gave him a plea deal,” said Roberts. “They let him serve 15 years and get out on the street when he should be serving life, the rest of his life, without the possibility of parole.”
“That is maddening to me that all of this was avoidable,” she continued.
Two decades later, we can only speculate as to why Snohomish County Prosecutor’s gave Haynes the plea deal instead of pursuing a third strike.
We spoke to the Snohomish County Prosecuting Attorney’s new Chief of Staff, Michael Held, to learn more on why a prosecutor would agree to a plea deal over a strike.
Held was not involved in the Haynes case, but he can provide insight.
“To remove that person from the community such that we believe that we are protecting the community for a substantial period of time, you may then elect to enter into a plea agreement and an agreed sentence that is short of a third strike,” Held explained.
Held explained it likely came down to concerns that a jury may not have found Haynes guilty of his third strikeable offense, but said the plea deal guarantees prison time.
To Roberts, it was nothing more than a failure in the system.
“[Our judicial system] wants you to believe that the people that they’re releasing are not violent, that they’re unlikely to reoffend, but that’s just not the truth of it,” said Roberts.
KIRO 7’s Elle Thomas is detailing all of Haynes’ strikes, asking prosecutors if they feel the right decision was made, and digging into the factors that come into play on a third strike.
We’re also exploring the current laws, and offender rights, that Roberts said are keeping her family from getting justice.
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