Mom found guilty of buying guns for son killed in police shootout

Seattle Federal Courthouse

The jury in a criminal case has rejected a retired civil servant’s claim that she was a law-abiding gun owner who shouldn’t be held responsible for her son’s shootout with cops that left him dead.

The jury in Seattle Federal Court found Jeanne Tinker-Smith, 64, guilty Friday of helping her son possess firearms despite a felony conviction, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported.

Cecil Chancy Tinker-Smith was killed after a four-hour standoff with sheriff’s deputies in 2014 in his mother’s home in Deming, Washington, near the Canadian border. The jury heard evidence that he exchanged gunfire with the deputies with a shotgun purchased by his mother. One deputy was injured when he was hit by shrapnel.

Defense attorney Alexander Ransom told the jury there was no evidence Tinker-Smith conspired to arm her son, according to the paper.

“She had a growing gun hobby,” he was quoted as saying by the paper. “She had a coyote problem. She’d been robbed before.”

“She’s the gun owner here,” he added, according to the paper. “That’s not a bad thing.”

The jury heard three days of testimony and reached a verdict after two days of deliberations, according to the Bellingham Herald.

Tinker-Smith was an accounting coordinator with the City of Bellingham until her retirement, the paper reported.

She faces sentencing on Dec. 9.