Courtroom fight follows sentencing

TACOMA — A fight broke out in a courtroom here Thursday after a 19-year-old man was sentenced to 30 years in prison for the beating death of a man last winter.

Andrew Brown was sentenced in the slaying of 69-year-old Darrel Johnson, a Navy submarine veteran and retired port electrician. Brown pleaded guilty in October to first-degree murder in Pierce County Superior Court.

After the judge sentenced Brown, the families began yelling at each other. A melee broke out when one woman complained that the sentence was unfairly long, given the victim's age.

"The man was 69, he wasn't going to live forever," she said.

The brawl lasted about 20 seconds as security officers and sheriff's deputies stepped in to keep would-be combatants separated. The courtroom was packed with friends and relatives of Brown and Johnson.

No one was seriously hurt, and no arrests were made. Pierce County Sheriff Paul Pastor said detectives would review video of the incident to see if any charges were warranted.

Johnson, using a cane after hip-replacement surgery, was beaten Jan. 9 during his usual morning walk in his east Tacoma neighborhood. He died a week later from multiple injuries, including those to his neck, which had been stomped on and crushed.

The alleged motive was robbery, though nothing apparently was taken.

Brown was one of three people charged in the case. First-degree-murder charges are pending against Tandra Rae Moses, 17, and Justin James Montgomery, 21.

Brown apologized to Johnson's family.

"I hope you beg for mercy and are shown none," Johnson's daughter Julie Johnson told Brown. Another daughter, Bobbi McDonald, expressed forgiveness.