A 54-year-old Washington man may spend the rest of his life behind bars for raping a woman while wearing a jack-o’-lantern Halloween mask, among other crimes.
Pierce County Superior Court Judge Stanley J. Rumbaugh last week ordered Shawn Lamar Bell to serve a sentence of 140 months (11 years and eight months) to life in prison for his crimes, prosecutors confirmed to Law&Crime. A
Pierce County jury on April 11 found Bell guilty on one count each of second-degree rape, second-degree assault, first-degree burglary, and second-degree robbery stemming from a pair of incidents that took place in 2019, Adam Faber, the communications manager for the Pierce County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, said in an email to Law&Crime.
Judge Rumbaugh credited Bell with 1,226 days of time served. If released, Bell will be on parole for the rest of his life. In addition, he must register as a sex offender and is prohibited from having any contact with his victims, the sentencing order states.
Prosecutors dismissed one count of first-degree attempted kidnapping after the jury was deadlocked on the charge.
According to a report from The Tacoma News Tribune, Bell on March 8, 2019 went into Lovers, a sex shop located on Meridian Avenue in Puyallup, just before the store closed. He was reportedly wearing a metallic pumpkin mask. Bell grabbed a female employee by the throat and demanded that she load his bag up with “cash and penis enhancement pills,” according to the News Tribune.
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