‘Killed her because they could.’ Man guilty in two Tacoma murders learns his sentence
A second man convicted in the 2021 shooting deaths of two people the perpetrators apparently intended to rob was sentenced in Pierce County Superior Court on Friday to 35 years in prison.
Octavio Reed, 21, pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree murder late last month as part of an agreement with prosecutors, court records show.
The charges stemmed from two shootings in Tacoma on July 24, 2021, in which Heather Tucker, 36, and Bud Morgan, 32, were killed in separate incidents.
Reed and accomplice Diamond Aaron told detectives they encountered Tucker in the 900 block of North Pearl Street where Reed demanded Tucker give them “everything you have” before firing at her multiple times and shooting her execution-style, charging papers showed. The two next went to Wright Park, where Reed asked Morgan for his belongings as he sat on a bench and then one or both men shot Morgan, The News Tribune previously reported.
Aaron, 25, was sentenced to nearly 40 years in prison in March 2023.
Superior Court Judge Matthew Thomas on Friday described the killings as “so tragic for the families involved” and said that both victims had been vulnerable and experiencing homelessness at the time of the attacks. He noted that Reed and Aaron intended to rob them.
“They took nothing perhaps because Bud and Heather had nothing,” Thomas said.
Karen Glaittli, Tucker’s mother, took the witness stand in court to deliver a victim-impact statement, saying that her daughter was known for her smile and had been an honest person.
“It was my understanding that they chased and killed her because they could,” Glaittli said, adding that “there is no moment where she is not in my heart or mind.”
Glaittli and Echo Morgan, Morgan’s sister who appeared in the courtroom via video conference, each requested a more severe sentence than the 35 years agreed upon by prosecutors and Reed’s defense counsel.
In a statement filed in court a week after the killings, Echo Morgan wrote that her brother was a good man who helped others, and she said that his death ultimately killed their mother.
“2 lives were taken that night and countless more were ruined,” she wrote.
Underwood told the court that Reed has significant cognitive problems and didn’t recognize the seriousness of his actions at the time but does now and is remorseful.
“He does recognize that what he did was not only wrong but terribly wrong with drastic consequences for all involved,” Underwood said.
Reed, who was escorted into the sentencing hearing unshackled, offered an apology to the victims’ families and asked for mercy and forgiveness.
Thomas ended the hearing with words for Reed, saying he hoped that he would never forget the families’ losses and that he would live a better life once he left prison.
“I will be reliving her death each day that I’m alive,” Glaittli said during her testimony.
