Verrick Vere Yarbrough, 18, found guilty of murder and assault, listened and fidgeted Friday in Pierce County Superior Court as the tally of months added up, each one another piece of a life thrown away.
For the fatal shooting of Rhaczio RhaRha Simms, Yarbroughs rival in a gangster feud: 361 months. For the assault that sent a stray bullet into Tiffany Walker, a teenage bystander who stepped out of a downtown Tacoma youth nightclub at the wrong moment and managed to survive: 123 months. For the gun Yarbrough carried that fired both shots: 60 months, times two. For aggravating factors being in a gang and harming a bystander: 120 months. Total months: 724.
Lawyers and judges count in months. Thats how sentences are calculated. Years are the more common measure elsewhere. Yarbrough was looking at 60 of them.