A man who fatally shot his girlfriend in South Hill and fled to Canada was sentenced Friday to 14 years and two months in prison.
Jordan Mark Eaton, 29, pleaded guilty in October to first-degree manslaughter and theft of a motor vehicle in connection with the Jan. 28, 2019, death of 19-year-old Cassandra Scaff. Family members said the couple had been together about five years and had been living with Eaton’s parents in South Hill.
Pierce County Superior Court Judge Andre Penalver gave Eaton the prison sentence recommended by prosecutors.
Scaff’s loved ones do not believe the sentence is long enough for a man who robbed them of a woman who was always positive and kind, who dreamed of becoming a veterinarian, who never passed up an opportunity to help others.
“The rest of my life will be like I am in prison,” her mother, Melissa Scaff, wrote in a victim impact statement. “Every day is another day of Cassandra’s life that was robbed from her. Part of my soul left the day Cassandra left. I will never be the same.”
Scaff’s father, Brett Small, said family members tried for years to get police to arrest Eaton because he was an adult and Scaff was a minor when they become sexually involved. Small described a relationship riddled with physical and mental abuse, and lamented that his daughter refused to leave Eaton.
“The weight on my chest is so heavy because I should have been able to see this coming and I should have been there to save Cassandra from this man that was hurting my daughter and would soon take her life,” Small wrote in his victim impact statement.
When prosecutors filed first-degree murder charges in 2019, no motive was known for the shooting.
Investigators discovered Eaton had sent a few text messages hours before killing Scaff that said: ““I just gotta go cause I cause nothing but pain for myself and others,” and, “Nobody will be able to get ahold of me anymore after today.”
In his guilty plea, Eaton wrote, “I recklessly caused the death of Cassandra Scaff by being intoxicated on drugs and unintentionally holding a gun when it went off and killed her.”
He then stole a vehicle from his former employer and drove to Canada, where he unsuccessfully sought asylum.
Court records show Eaton’s parents sought a protection order against him in 2016. They said in one of their petitions that he needed help for his mental health, anger management and drug and alcohol rehabilitation.
In one case, charging papers say, he grabbed a gun after an argument with his parents, threatened to kill himself and fired a shot in an unknown direction.
