The King County Superior Court sentenced a Renton man on May 31 for charges in a 2021 Kent homicide.
Judge Nicole Gaines-Phelps sentenced Anthony Dexter Ford, 38, to 30 years and four months of confinement for charges in regards to the May 21, 2021, murder of 27-year-old Avery Wilcox Jr., of Tukwila, in Kent.
Ford accepted a plea agreement and pleaded guilty on March 27 to two felony counts of murder in the first degree and unlawful possession of a firearm in the second degree and a misdemeanor count of assault in the fourth degree. Prosecutors dropped a felony charge of assault in the first degree and additional firearms penalties against Ford.
Gaines-Phelps sentenced Ford to 30 years and four months in confinement for the murder in the first degree charge, 29 months for the unlawful possession of a firearm in the second degree charge, and 364 days for the assault in the fourth degree charge, with the sentences for all three counts to run concurrently. Ford will serve an additional three years on community custody following confinement.
According to court documents, Ford shot Wilcox as Wilcox and his family waited in a parking lot in the 10400 block of Southeast Kent Kangley Road for Kent Police. Wilcox and his family requested Kent Police provide a “civil standby” officer to aid Wilcox in moving his belongings out of a shared apartment with his ex-girlfriend following a breakup.
According to an affidavit of probable cause, Ford served as a cousin of Wilcox’s ex-girlfriend, and “[they had] been on bad terms for several years.”
According to the affidavit, Ford’s vehicle pulled up adjacent to Wilcox’s vehicle in the parking lot prior to the sound of multiple gunshots.
One bullet passed through both the driver’s and passenger side windows of Wilcox’s vehicle, shattering the window of Wilcox’s mother’s vehicle, parked parallel to his.
Wilcox’s stepfather, sitting next to Wilcox’s mother, jumped out of the vehicle and pulled out a lawfully owned handgun, firing at Ford’s vehicle as it sped out of the parking lot.
Wilcox’s family dialed 911 and discovered Wilcox lying across the front passenger seat of his vehicle with a gunshot wound to his head. Responding officers pulled Wilcox from the vehicle and provided aid prior to the arrival of medics.
Medics transported Wilcox to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle where staff pronounced him as deceased.
The King County Medical Examiner’s Office found Wilcox died as a result of a gunshot wound to the right side of his head.
Ford remained at-large for one month following Wilcox’s death.
According to court documents, Ford altered the vehicle he drove while committing the shooting and disposed of the vehicle following the shooting.
Law enforcement booked Ford on a warrant on June 23, 2021.
The family and friends of Wilcox and family of Ford attended Ford’s sentencing hearing on May 31.
“I, Anthony Ford, ... with premeditated intent to cause the death of another person, did cause the death of Avery Wilcox Jr. ... when I shot him as he was seated in his vehicle,” Ford stated in his guilty plea.
Wilcox worked as a barber at Nine Thousand Hair Studio in Tukwila, according to Facebook posts by Wilcox and his friends. Wilcox referred to himself as Mr. Barber on his Facebook page. Wilcox played football at Foster High School in Tukwila and graduated in 2012, according to maxpreps.com.