Man sentenced to 10 years in prison for beating 65-year-old to death with a skateboard in Spokane

One of the two men who beat a 65-year-old man to death in 2023 near Chief Garry Park was sentenced Monday to 10 years in prison, according to court documents.

Quentyn P. Tyndale, 20, pleaded guilty Monday to second-degree murder in the death of Jamie Weathers before Spokane County Superior Court Judge Rachelle Anderson delivered a 123-month prison sentence.

Justin D. Haylett, 20, also faces a second-degree murder charge and is scheduled for trial in May.

Spokane police officers responded Aug. 7, 2023, to the 3000 block of East Mission Avenue for a reported assault and found Weathers lying in a parking lot, according to court records. Weathers had “severe head trauma” and was alive but unresponsive, police wrote in documents.

He was taken to the hospital, where he died eight days later.

Investigators learned Weathers was assaulted twice on Aug. 7, according to documents.

The first assault, which also happened in the 3000 block of East Mission Avenue, did not involve the two defendants and was unrelated to the second assault, according to Spokane County Deputy Prosecutor Jonathan Degen.

In the first assault, Degen said video showed a man getting out of a vehicle and punching Weathers, who fell backward and hit his head, in the face. Weathers got up and walked around after the assault, which did not contribute to his death, Degen said.

Weathers returned to Mission Avenue later that night when police said Tyndale and Haylett assaulted him, documents say. That assault was also captured by surveillance footage.

Two witnesses told police they saw two people who frequent the Volunteers of America young adult homeless shelter, which is about one block from the assault location, assault Weathers.

One of the witnesses said he saw one of the defendants punch Weathers and the second defendant hit Weathers with a skateboard, knocking him to the ground. He then saw the first defendant kick the victim on the ground, the witness told police.

Detectives identified Tyndale and Haylett as the suspects and arrested them.

Haylett initially denied involvement, but later told police he saw someone hit the victim in the head with a skateboard, knocking him to the ground. Haylett told police he “lightly stepped” on Weathers’ head to teach Weathers a lesson.

Tyndale told police he hit Weathers on the head with a skateboard and then Haylett kicked Weathers in the head more than one time, according to documents.

Degen said the defendants claimed Weathers was inappropriately touching or exposing himself to the defendants’ friends. Degen said there’s no evidence Weathers acted inappropriately.

Tyndale, who has no prior felonies, will spend three years in community custody when he’s released from prison.