Man gets 6-year term in robbery which ended with victim’s death
A Spokane man with hopes of a college basketball scholarship and a coaching job was sentenced this week to six years in prison.
Darian D’Marce Ervin, 25, accepted a plea bargain in January in which a first-degree murder charge was dismissed. He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit first-degree robbery, second-degree robbery and first-degree burglary and to attempted first-degree robbery.
Ervin went to trial in September, but Superior Court Judge Jerome Leveque declared a mistrial when a juror was caught consulting Black’s Law Dictionary. Jurors are not allowed to conduct independent research.
According to court documents, Ervin helped plan a bungled robbery that resulted in the death of suspected California drug dealer Aaren T. “Ghost” Cole outside the TraveLodge motel, 33 W. Spokane Falls Blvd., on Sept. 26, 2003. Ervin also provided the gun that killed Cole, authorities said.
Charging documents say Ervin – who wasn’t present during the shooting – came up with the idea of having Alyssa C. Knight, 22, sleep with Cole in his motel room to determine whether he was armed and how much money he had.
Co-conspirators Dionne Jamal Williams, 25, and Peter Michael Knypstra, 21, were supposed to rob Cole when Knight lured him into an alley. Instead, Williams shot Cole to death and fled.
Knight, Williams and Knypstra have been convicted on various charges, including first- and second-degree robbery. Williams got 371/2 years in prison, and Knight got 233/4.
Knypstra, who turned state’s evidence and pleaded guilty to first-degree robbery with a firearm, is to be sentenced March 30. Deputy Prosecutor Matt Duggan is to recommend slightly less than five years in prison for Knypstra.
Duggan and defense attorney Rob Cossey jointly recommended the minimum-standard sentence Leveque gave Ervin Thursday.
Ervin’s mother, Heidi Parker, told Leveque her son deserved a chance to turn his life around and return to his three young children, to whom he is “a good father.”
She said Ervin is a talented basketball player and a good community college student, who was planning to transfer to a four-year college. She said he had been offered a coaching job.
“I’m convinced you have a future,” Leveque told Ervin. “That future is really bright if you make it bright.”
He noted, though, that other people have seen a different side of Ervin.
Court documents say one potential witness expressed fear of Ervin and told police his nickname, “HP,” stands for “hollow point” – a kind of bullet designed to cause extra damage.