Auburn cop found guilty of murder in 2019 death of Jesse Sarey

Jeffrey Nelson, an Auburn police officer who was charged for shooting and killing Jesse Sarey, 26, in 2019, was found guilty of murder and assault on Thursday. Nelson is the first officer in Washington state to be convicted under a new legal standard for holding cops accountable for using deadly force.

Nelson was the first officer in Washington to be charged following the passage of Initiative 940, which removed the standard of proving “malice” to prosecute cops who kill on the job. Nelson was charged with second-degree murder and first-degree assault in 2020.

Nelson’s trial, which had been delayed several times, started in May, five years after Sarey’s death.