Spokane teens sentenced for February drive-by where woman shot herself

Two Spokane teens will spend years in prison for a robbery and drive-by shooting in February that led to one of their friends shooting and killing herself.

Kayden Willoughby was sentenced to about five years in prison on his 19th birthday Thursday for the attempted robbery and drive-by shooting that stemmed from a Facebook Marketplace ad. His associate, 18-year-old Christopher Gimmaka, was sentenced to more than three years in prison last month for his connection to the robbery. Both pleaded guilty as part of a plea agreement to avoid convictions for attempted murder, records show.

Spokane Superior Court Judge Tony Hazel told Willoughby that even though he has no criminal history, the beginning started “with some serious charges.”

“Do you understand how reckless this was?” Hazel asked Willoughby on Thursday in court. Willoughby said he understood but declined to make any further statements.

“Be careful who you choose as a friend,” Hazel said to Willoughby before he was led away in handcuffs.

The incident began when a local man found tools stolen from his property listed online for sale. He reached out to the seller and agreed to meet at the parking lot of the Andrew Rypien Field soccer complex, court records say. When he got there, multiple teens pulled up in a 2013 Dodge Dart with ski masks over their faces. The man attempted to call police when the teens sped away in the Dart, court records say, so he began following them in his own car.

He told police they were “driving aggressively” when two of the people in the car put their arms out of the windows and began shooting at him in the area of Market Street and Euclid Avenue, court records say.

Willoughby was in a car with Gimmaka, 18-year-old Devin McEwen, an unnamed 16-year-old and 18-year-old Sally Ann Yamane. The teens told police Yamane was the one shooting at the car behind them until police began pursuing the Dart, court records say. As police tried to stop the car, McEwen said Yamane continued to ask, “Are we good?” and “Are we going to make it?”

When McEwen told her that it likely wouldn’t turn out “good,” Yamane pulled the gun and shot herself. Police were able to pin the car near Hamilton Street near Springfield Avenue.

Yamane died at the hospital, court records say.

According to her obituary, Yamane “loved people and was always trying to help them.”

“She would see someone and would go out of her way to tell them they were pretty or beautiful,” her family wrote. “When we would eat out, she would always order some extra food and ask to give it to a homeless person so they could have something to eat.”

McEwen is scheduled for trial in September of this year.