A 32-year-old man who fatally shot his former work supervisor in Federal Way more than five years ago was sentenced Friday morning to 31 1/2 years in prison.
A King County jury convicted Kareem Harris last month of first-degree murder with a firearm enhancement for the shooting of Wilbur Gant on Oct. 28, 2009. Gant died about a year after the shooting outside his Federal Way apartment.
Harris was on the run for two months after the shooting before he was arrested in Florida on a fugitive warrant.
Gant was shot multiple times outside his apartment at 127 S. 340th St. in Federal Way. He later told police that Harris shot him over a workplace dispute at Milgard Windows in Fife, according to charging documents.
After working at the Milgard window factory in Fife as a machine operator for three or four years, Harris was fired in May 2009 when it was discovered he’d been leaving work early and paying a co-worker to punch his time card, according to the documents. The 48-year-old supervisor, who uncovered the fraud, also gave a statement at an unemployment hearing that resulted in Harris being denied unemployment benefits, the papers say.
Harris threatened his former supervisor and other co-workers before the shooting, telling them “he kept a gun under his seat and [was] not afraid to use it,” according to charging documents.
Harris faced a sentence range of 25 to 31 1/2 years in prison, with prosecutors recommending a high-end sentence.