Tacoma Man Pleads Guilty To 2018 Murder On JBLM Property

LAKEWOOD, WA — A Tacoma man has pleaded guilty to the 2018 murder of his housemate, which took place on a wooded Joint-Base Lewis McChord property.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, 52-year-old Bobbie Anson Pease pleaded guilty to charges of second degree murder and being a felon in possession of a gun Tuesday at the U.S. District Court in Tacoma.

Pease was charged with murdering his housemate in Sept. 2018. According to the plea agreement, at the time he was sharing a home with the victim, her daughter and his co-defendant Jeremy Warren, among several others. The night of Sept. 4, 2018, the victim asked Pease and Warren for a ride to a Spanaway convenience store. The men took her there, but instead of returning home afterwards, they instead took her to a secluded, wooded area on JBLM property just outside the base's fenced boundaries.

Once there, Pease and Warren reportedly confronted the woman about a few things they believed she had stolen — a drug pipe and pocket-knife — and then beat her with an aluminum baseball bat. The DOJ says the assault left her with several broken bones and traumatic head injuries. Afterwards, Pease drew a pistol and fired three shots into the woman's head, killing her.

Investigators say the two men left the woman's body in the woods, disposed of the baseball bat in Spanaway and tossed the gun into the Puyallup river. The gun was later recovered by investigators.

Pease and Warren then called police and told them the woman had "left the convenience store with someone else and moved out of state" the DOJ said. Her body was discovered nine days later by railroad workers on Sept 13. Pease and Warren were arrested in October. By then, the duo had moved to Forks, Washington, in an attempt to avoid capture.

The DOJ says Pease could not legally possess a firearm because of his long criminal history, stretching back to 1991. In the past, he has been convicted of robbery with a deadly weapon, witness tampering, car theft, and burglary, among other crimes.

The DOJ says prosecutors and defense attorneys have agreed to recommend Pease serve a 26-year prison term. His sentencing has been set for Oct. 22.