Spokane7
48°
September 29, 2009 in City
Victim had sought new life
Jacob Potter hoped to teach others to avoid crimes he’d committed
Six weeks before he was gunned down with a friend while working on a car, Jacob J. Potter said he wanted to turn his life around.
The 45-year-old convict contacted the newspaper and said he wanted to work with businesses he’d ripped off to teach them how to avoid being victimized.
He’d served several years behind bars after pleading guilty to identity theft charges in 2004.
Potter’s chance to help victims ended Saturday night when he and Jack T. Lamere, 41, were shot to death by a man police say remains at large.
Merle W. Harvey, 27, is wanted on two counts of first-degree murder.
Police say he fled after the shooting in a flatbed truck with Diane L. Richardson, 33, who investigators are hoping to question.
A second suspect, Mark H. Toner, 33, was arrested late Sunday at a motel on the Sunset Highway.
Toner appeared in Spokane County Superior Court via video Monday on charges of rendering criminal assistance and witness intimidation.
Judge Ellen Kalama Clark reduced his bond to $35,000 from $100,000.
Lamere’s family urged her to hold him in jail on no bond.
“We have two mothers who lost their sons,” said Ginger Lucero, Lamere’s cousin.
Neighbors said Potter and Lamere were working on Lamere’s Chevrolet Blazer. Harvey approached the men, neighbors said Sunday, offering to trade his Cadillac for the Blazer.
A witness said Lamere had had brief possession of the Cadillac but had traded it to Harvey for the Blazer; Harvey wanted the Blazer back.
Toner’s link to the case stems from an interaction with a woman whom he’d asked to help hide Harvey, according to a probable cause affidavit prepared by Spokane police Detective Chet Gilmore.
After the woman refused and called police, she received threatening text messages from Toner and was followed by him to a McDonald’s on U.S. Highway 2, according to the affidavit.
She called police after Toner followed her inside the restaurant, according to the affidavit. Toner left, and she exited the store to find her friend’s truck’s tires slashed.
A McDonald’s employee had written down Toner’s license plate. After he was tracked down and arrested, Toner denied knowing Harvey or anything about the shootings, police said.
Toner has no felony convictions. Potter had several, including forgery, identity theft and possession of methamphetamine. He contacted the newspaper in August after he found a woman’s wallet on a bus. He wanted to teach her how to avoid falling victim to the crimes he once perpetrated.
Lamere had recently been released from prison after serving more than 10 years for his role in a large methamphetamine ring.
Lamere’s mother, Linda Schwartz, admits her son had enemies.
“A lot of people loved him; a lot of people not. That’s up to them,” Schwartz said. “He was a human, and he didn’t deserve to die like he did.”
Staff writer Sara Leaming contributed to this story.
Human trafficking suspects released 
zuis420 on September 29 at 10:15 a.m.
well i met jack t.lamere when he got off his house arrest and well, that is a worthless sob if i ever saw one, he had the mentality of a prison inmate and how he treated people was just horrible, every other word out his mouth was (homeboy) this (homeboy) that and (im a killer home boy i just came from prison ill kill you home boy) pffffttttt thank god someone john wayned his home boy ass!!!!! someone give that man a reward or an oscar award….. i would love to shake your hand mr. john wayne. and thanks for taking out the trash!…..
ttiger on September 30 at 8:31 a.m.
So zuis420, you endorse someone killing someone because you did not like the term “homeboy?” Is the 420 in your name a reference to being a POTHEAD? Must be to make such a retarded statement such as that. What should be most considered is that some methed out tweaker murderer has outsmarted our whole police department for 4 days now and is still on our streets! He killed 2 men just a few yards from our whole Police Department and Sheriff’s Department main offices, a stone’s throw from the courthouse and got away on a Saturday night at only 9:30pm. And one should consider that the many outlaw bikers Jack Lamere took off our streets 12 years ago are the ones responsible for this shooting. Maybe Merle Harvey was promised a membership and a lot of drugs to kill Jack? “Kill Jack and throw a gun next to him so it looks like self defense” That way he will just get off with a manslaughter charge and be right back on the streets!
So Mr. ZUIS420 maybe we should just go out and shoot the people we don’t like, like maybe pothead drug abusers! Talking bad about the dead shows how small of a man you really are. Get a brain, get a life!
nooneimportant on October 01 at 11:52 p.m.
JACK WAS A PERSON THAT NOT ONLY WAS A XCON FOR DRUGS BUT ALSO DID TIME FOR STABING SOMEONE, JACK HAD NO CARE FOR ANYONE BUT HIMSELF AND ALSO WAS A PERSON THAT WOULD STEAL FROM ANYONE. JACK ALSO WAS TAKING CARS THAT WAS NOT HIS AND WELL LETS JUST SAY FOR WHAT IT SOUNDS LIKE HE MADE A MISTAKE AND CARMA GOT HIM HARD !!WHAT ABOUT ALL THE VICTIMS HE MADE . WHEN YOU PLAY IN THE DARK SOMETIMES YOU TRIP AND FALL. JACK CHOSE TO PLAY IN THE DARK AND FELL HARD LIKEMANY OTHER WHO HAVE IN THE PAST, ITS JUST THAT UNFORCHENETLY HE FELL REALY HARD ! JACK DID NOT CARE IFANYONE GOT HURT. HE EVEN WAS SENTENCED TO TAKING OTHERS HOSTAGE AND TORCHURING THEM. SO ALL YOU GOODY GOODY =OH TO BAD FOR THIS GIE. WELL YOU GOLD PLATE DOG DO YOU STILL HAVE DOG DO ! AND WELL SORY ABOUT HIS BAD LUCK BUT THAT WAS THE LIFE HE CHOSE SO AS THEY SAY WHAT HETREATED OTHERS LIKE WELL HE GOT THE SAME IN RETURN. JACK HAS A VERY LONG RAP SHEAT HERE IN THIS TOWN AND MOST WAS VIOLENT ACTS. WHAT HAPPEND HER IS HARD AND REAL OF THE UNDERWOLD OF THIS SMALL TOWN CALLED SPOKANE. AND I CAN NOT SEE WHY IT WAS NOT REPORTED THAT ONE OF SPOKANES MOST NITORIOUS PEAPLE WAS KILLED. WHATWOULD PEAPLE THINK IF IT WAS SAY EDIE HALL ? HECK EDIE NEVER HAD AVILENT CRIME JUST A LOT OF DRUG CHARGES. BUT IF IT WOULD HAVE BEEN SOMEONE LIKE HIM THE HEAD LINES WOULD HAVE BEEN DIFERENT