Hector Gonzalez Jimenez, a 27-year-old Hispanic man from Eagle Creek, Oregon, was in Tacoma, Washington, for a weekend trip with friends when his life was cut short. On the evening of Saturday, August 24, 2024, Gonzalez Jimenez met a dancer named Ashley Danielle Arrieta at the Dream Girls strip club on Pacific Avenue. The two arranged to meet later at his room in the Holiday Inn on South C Street, and he sent her a $1,500 payment via Zelle.
Shortly after the payment was made, Arrieta
sent a heart emoji in a text message to her boyfriend, Jamari Khayelle Webb. Prosecutors would later say this was a prearranged signal that she had the money and the robbery they had plotted could begin. Hotel surveillance footage showed Gonzalez Jimenez arriving at the hotel around 3:20 a.m. on August 25. About 16 minutes later, Arrieta entered his room, followed shortly by Webb. Inside, Webb confronted Gonzalez Jimenez at gunpoint, forcing him to search his own backpack for cash. The robbery became violent when Gonzalez Jimenez reached for his own gun to defend himself. Webb beat him and then shot him once in the chest.
Surveillance cameras captured Arrieta leaving the room at approximately 3:45 a.m., followed a minute later by Webb, who was now missing one of his white slip-on shoes. Later that morning, after Gonzalez Jimenez failed to check out, hotel staff discovered his body. The death was initially reported as a suicide, but first responders who arrived around 11 a.m. determined he had been killed. The Pierce County Medical Examiner’s Office later ruled his death a homicide.
The investigation quickly focused on Arrieta and Webb. Evidence left in the hotel room included a single bloody, white slip-on shoe, a broken necklace, and a receipt from a Safeway grocery store. The receipt led detectives to surveillance footage of the couple together from the previous evening. Investigators also recovered Gonzalez Jimenez’s stolen phone from the side of State Route 509 near Fife. After a police bulletin was issued, a detective recognized Arrieta, and on September 17, 2024, both she and Webb were arrested at a park in King County.
Arrieta, 26, and Webb, 24, were charged with first-degree and second-degree murder; Webb faced an additional charge for unlawful possession of a firearm. Both pleaded not guilty. Following a jury trial, they were convicted of first-degree murder on November 4, 2024. On November 21, a judge sentenced Jamari Webb to 36 years and 8 months in prison. That same day, Ashley Arrieta received a sentence of 31 years and 9 months.
