‘There is a debt.’ Man sentenced for fatally shooting friend at 17 in emotional hearing

Elijah James Goode-Mitchell was 17 years old when he and a friend were hanging out in his grandmother’s Lakewood home, laughing together and playing with the dog.

Within seconds, the teens’ laughter turned to screams. Lavonte Daniel Fleming, 18, had been shot in the back from 1 to 2 feet away . Responding police officers found him lying near the front door, and he was pronounced dead at the scene.

On Friday, more than four years later, Goode-Mitchell was sentenced in Pierce County Superior Court to nearly five years in state custody. The defendant had previously pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter and second-degree unlawful possession of a firearm in the Oct. 13, 2019 shooting. He will remain in custody of the Department of Children, Youth & Families because of his age at the time of the incident.

His case dragged on in part because a little more than a month after he pleaded guilty June 3, 2022, prosecutors charged Goode-Mitchell with assault and robbery, alleging a pattern of domestic violence against his girlfriend for several months that year.

The case went to trial in February, and a jury found him not guilty on all counts after four days in court and four hours of deliberations, according to court records. His defense attorney, Ephraim Benjamin, said in court Friday that the case came down to the credibility of the complainant, Goode-Mitchell’s then-girlfriend. She gave testimony that contradicted itself, he said, and a fire department captain testified that her injuries appeared self-inflicted.

Although a separate case, it had the potential to significantly affect the length of Goode-Mitchell’s sentence for the killing of Fleming.

Deputy prosecuting attorney Dru Swaim argued in court Friday that Goode-Mitchell violated the terms of their plea agreement by failing to maintain law abiding behavior. According to court records, the plea agreement secured for him prosecutors’ recommendation that he be sentenced to 45 months for first-degree manslaughter plus a 12-month firearm sentencing enhancement, almost half the low end of the standard sentencing range (86 to 114 months not including enhancements).

Despite his acquittal, Swaim argued the final incident Goode-Mitchell was criminally charged for, in which he allegedly beat his girlfriend with a metal pole and robbed her of $600, could be considered for a breach of plea agreement. A breach would have allowed prosecutors to argue for a standard-range sentence.

That’s because prosecutors say the burdens of proof in a trial and for a finding of a breach of a plea agreement are different. In a trial, the state must prove each element beyond a reasonable doubt. Here, a breach of plea agreement has to be found by a preponderance of the evidence, which comes down to whether the allegations are more probably true than not.

Judge Sabrina Ahrens found that the jury’s acquittal of Goode-Mitchell did not bar her from considering whether a breach of the plea agreement occurred, but she ultimately did not find enough evidence to find that the defendant committed a crime.

After denying the state’s motion, Ahrens and about 25 people who filled the courtroom heard from the mother of Fleming, Joni Hixson, who attended the sentencing over Zoom. At times pausing to collect herself, Hixson told the court of the unbreakable bond she shared with her son, and how Goode-Mitchell’s actions had ripped everything from her world.

She recalled the hours she spent with Fleming cooking together in the kitchen or just lying in bed and watching YouTube, and how her son had helped with things like diapers and bottles for the other children.

“He was my best friend. He was my baby. He still is my baby,” Hixson said.

Goode-Mitchell came to Lakewood to stay with his grandmother because of problems back home in Spokane, according to court documents. Hixson said that her son and Goode-Mitchell were like brothers, and Goode-Mitchell had called her “Mom.”

Now Goode-Mitchell will spend time in jail, Hixson said, but he will get out and live a longer life, and he has already given his mother grandchildren. Fleming will never have any of these things, she said. He’ll still be ashes in an urn next to her bed.

“This is our life, and it will forever be broken,” the mother said. “We now live a life sentence of hell.”

Blaze Vincent, interim executive director of The Freedom Project, spoke next on behalf of the defense. His organization is a Renton-based nonprofit that “interrupts the cycle of incarceration with programs that provide healing connection and restorative communities for participants both inside and outside prison,” according to its website.

Vincent said Goode-Mitchell had been connected with another nonprofit, Community Passageways, during the case, and he has since been striving to be a better person. That has included starting his own nonprofit, Gorilla Faith , which was born out of his love of drift-track driving. It aims to steer at-risk youth toward brighter futures through mentor programs, mental health workshops and car drifting.

Goode-Mitchell then addressed the court, telling Judge Ahrens that the shooting of Fleming was an accident, and his action contained no malice. He said the 17-year-old boy arrested for the crime in 2019 was not the same man standing before her today.

He began to tear up as he spoke about his own three children, telling the court that he’s focused on being the dad to them that he never had.

“I can’t imagine losing them,” Goode-Mitchell said. “Can’t begin to fathom how you guys feel today knowing the situation caused such hurt and pain to your family.”

After Ahrens handed down the sentence, the judge said she had one final comment for the defendant. She commended him for making better choices once the case was filed and for creating his nonprofit, but she found it sad that it took this incident for him to do so.

“But now you should know that your life is no longer your own. You now have an obligation to go out and try to heal a community that you have caused damage to,” Ahrens said. “My expectation of you is that until the day that you take your last breath, that you understand that there is a debt to this community that you owe.”

“Yes your honor,” Goode-Mitchell replied.