Port Angeles man sentenced to 23 years for murder

Published 11:25 am Wednesday, June 10, 2026

PORT ANGELES — A Port Angeles man has been sentenced to more than 23 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder.

Marquise Hagans-Moore, 28, received the high end of the standard range on Wednesday in Clallam County Superior Court, a sentence of 220 months plus a five-year enhancement for the use of a firearm. The 280-month total was the recommendation from Clallam County senior deputy prosecuting attorney Steven Johnson.

Hagans-Moore also will serve 36 months of community custody following his prison term, and the court ordered anger management treatment.

William Payne, the attorney for Hagans-Moore, had recommended the low end of the standard range at 123 months plus the five-year firearms enhancement.

Hagans-Moore pleaded guilty in March to killing Rebecca Rule-Cowles, 51, in September 2024 at the Whidby Avenue home in Port Angeles where they were roommates. Rule-Cowles was shot 10 times, according to the medical examiner’s report, and she suffered multiple facial fractures after Hagans-Moore beat her with the gun.

Judge Simon Barnhart, who listened to statements from seven of Rule-Cowles’ family members during the 90-minute hearing, said the state Legislature provides a sentencing range but doesn’t include guidance for how to rule within that range.

“These cases defy explanation,” Barnhart said. “There’s a high level of the unthinkable in this case.”

Hagans-Moore, who displayed little emotion as Rule-Cowles’ family members described the loved one they lost, addressed the court with a brief statement.

“There’s nothing I can really say to lessen the blow,” he said. “I know what I did was wrong.

“I’m willing to accept my fate.”

Family members described Rule-Cowles, whom they knew as Becky, as a generous, compassionate woman with a sweet smile who was always happy and helpful.

“She wanted to grow up and be a counselor, wanted to help kids and help people,” said her mother, Mary.

Her sister, Beth Rule, said Becky was a lively, loving person.

“She went out of her way to help others even if helping others meant she would go without,” Beth wrote in an impact statement. “She believed everybody deserved kindness, acceptance, love and a second chance.”

When Rule-Cowles lived in Forks, she always made a point to make her apartment a safe haven for teens, said Becky’s cousin, Terra Keese, who described Becky as a “butterfly that danced among flowers and sun rays.”

“Friends of her kids or even friends of those friends had a safe place to stay at her house at any time (of) day or night,” Keese wrote. “They could take a shower, eat, sleep or just breathe. She would never bug them about stuff, but was there if they needed to talk.”

Family members also described Hagans-Moore as a habitual offender of domestic violence and expressed concern that he could reoffend.

“It’s a textbook example of the most dangerous type of domestic situation which has been glossed over, intentionally misrepresented and dismissed of nearly all context,” said Becky’s sister, Michelle Lynn-Rule Walker.

“I am here to declare, with no reservation or nuance, that it is due solely to the defendant’s unchecked wrath, dangerous lack of self-control and a perverse sense of entitlement to the life of another being that my sister is gone forever,” she wrote.

“This is a tragedy. There is no doubt,” said Payne, Hagans-Moore’s attorney, who said Hagans-Moore was in crisis with undiagnosed and unmedicated mental health issues and was emotionally suffering because he learned the day before that his father-in-law had died by suicide.

“Mr. Hagans-Moore regrets his behavior, acknowledges his guilt and is very remorseful for his actions,” Payne wrote in the defendant’s sentencing memo.

Members of Hagans-Moore’s family also submitted letters of support, many of which offered condolences to Rule-Cowles’ survivors.

“Despite the horror of that day, Marquise has never once run from the truth,” said his mother, Thresa Hagans. “From the moment he turned himself in just hours later, he has maintained total accountability. He has spent the last 18 months alone trying to wrap his mind around the situation he has found himself in, struggling to forgive himself and consumed by remorse. By pleading guilty, he has accepted full responsibility, regardless of what the outcome for his own life may be.

“He doesn’t want to just serve time; he wants to make a difference by helping others understand the intersection of childhood trauma and mental illness and the possible consequence of letting that go unchecked.”

________

Editor Brian McLean can be reached by email at brian.mclean@peninsuladailynews.com.