Man pleads guilty to shooting, killing stepfather on family’s property in Eatonville
A man has pleaded guilty to shooting and killing his stepfather last year at a property in Eatonville.
Ryan Harris, 44, pleaded guilty April 12 in Pierce County Superior Court to second-degree murder in the April 15, 2021 killing of 72-year-old Mark Pray.
Harris is to be sentenced June 7. The prosecution and defense agreed to a recommended sentencing length of 12 years, 3 months in prison. That’s within the standard sentencing range for similar cases.
Harris was accused last year of murdering his stepfather during an argument in a wood shop on the family’s property then hiding the victim’s body about 100 yards away. According to charging documents, the two men were arguing over stolen beer.
In the defendant’s guilty-plea statement, he admitted to shooting Pray with the intent of killing him. Harris has no prior felony convictions.
He was charged the day after Pray’s death with first-degree murder and theft of a motor vehicle. Superior Court Judge Diana L. Kiesel ordered Harris to be held in Pierce County Jail in lieu of $1 million bail.
Pierce County Sheriff’s Department deputies went to the property on Elkhorn Boulevard the afternoon of April 15 after a neighbor called 911 to report that Harris had called him and said he shot his stepfather.
The neighbor said Harris told him Pray threw a hammer at him during the argument in the wood shop, according to the declaration for determination of probable cause. He said Harris then went inside the house, took his stepfather’s handgun and shot him.
Deputies looked around the property and found some blood near a workshop but no sign of Pray, according to the probable cause document. Later that day, investigators got details on the stepfather’s van, and a deputy spotted it at 136th Street East and Meridian Avenue East in South Hill. Harris was detained and brought to a Sheriff’s Department precinct for questioning.
During his interview, Harris acknowledged arguing with Pray after the man accused him of stealing his beer. He said the handle of the hammer Pray threw at him grazed his face, the probable cause document states.
When detectives asked Harris if he’d confessed to shooting his stepfather during a call with his neighbor, the defendant allegedly appeared shocked to hear his stepfather might have been hurt and denied killing him.
Detectives were granted a search warrant for the Eatonville property the same day, and at about 11 p.m., Pray’s body was found near a barn covered by debris.
In a preliminary exam of the body, a medical examiner investigator located a gunshot wound to his head and one to his chest.
This story was originally published April 15, 2022 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Man pleads guilty to shooting, killing stepfather on family’s property in Eatonville."
