Jury hung in Darcus Allen case, mistrial declared again

Jury hung in Darcus Allen case, mistrial declared again

The jury in the retrial of Darcus Allen, the getaway driver for a man who killed four Lakewood Police officers in over a decade ago, could not reach a unanimous verdict, so a judge declared a mistrial on Thursday.

LAKEWOOD, Wash. - The jury in the retrial of Darcus Allen, the getaway driver for a man who killed four Lakewood Police officers in over a decade ago, could not reach a unanimous verdict, so a judge declared a mistrial on Thursday.

On Nov. 29, 2009, Maurice Clemmons entered a coffee shop in Lakewood and shot and killed four police officers. Clemmons specifically targeted the officers. Allen drove the pickup truck that Clemmons rode in to escape the scene. 

Allen claimed that he did not know what Clemmons' plans were before he drove him to and from the coffee shop that day. He also said he didn't realize anything had happened until they were a few blocks away and saw that Clemmons was wounded. 

Clemmons was later shot and killed by a Seattle police officer after a two-day manhunt. 

A jury convicted Allen of murder as an accomplice in 2011. The jury cleared him of the aggravating factors: that he knew the victims would be police officers and that there were multiple victims or that the killings were planned.

The state Supreme Court overturned the conviction, saying a prosecutor had committed misconduct by misstating the definition of an "accomplice" during closing arguments.

This is the second mistrial declared in Allen's case for four counts of first-degree murder, with the most recent being in November 2022. 

A new trial date has been set for April 20.