The sentencing of the last of three men responsible for the death of 19-year-old Tyrone Sero is scheduled to take place Oct. 23 in Kitsap County Superior Court, just over two years after the marijuana deal gone wrong.

It’s the final step in many months of bloodshed, tears and lengthy legal proceedings, and it’s still just as painful for the family and friends of the late Port Orchard teen. They say the results will not deliver justice for their loss after a lenient plea deal was agreed upon for all three suspects. “No, justice wasn’t served because all three deserve life without the possibility of parole,” Kyra Sero, Tyrone’s cousin, said following the sentencing of Kannon Anthony Stephens. “Kitsap County has failed yet another family.”

Sero went missing in October of 2021 after a planned meetup with Stephens for a sale involving marijuana. Surveillance footage obtained from cameras in a South Kitsap parking lot shows Sero getting into a vehicle and the initial struggle as he was pulled toward the back seats. Stephens confessed to law enforcement that he hid in the rear of the vehicle and shot the victim in the back of the head. The body was taken by him and his accomplices, Eli Malcom Gregory and Karlen Merle Talent, to a property in Mason County to be burned.

It was a brutal crime that Sero’s family now feels is getting the benefit of a soft prosecution team in Kitsap County. A plea deal dropped the initial murder charges brought against all three men, who instead pled guilty to lesser charges of manslaughter, robbery, unlawful imprisonment and assault, among others. As a result, Stephens received a sentence of just a little over 17 years. Talent received just 93 months. The same sentence of over seven years is now expected to be handed down in court to Gregory.

But the anger of Sero’s supporters continues to be kindled against Prosecuting Attorney Chad Enright and company for an apparent lack of empathy for the victim’s family and friends. Kyra Sero said in a statement directly to prosecutors:“…it’s yet again unfortunate that we stand before the courts as we’ve waited for justice to be served for the last almost 24 months, and this is the best you could do. As a prosecutor, you are here to do one job, and it seems you have forgotten what that job is.”