A Bellingham woman was sentenced to over 23 years in prison for the murder of Thomas Flood, a 67-year-old Whidbey Island man found shot to death on Semiahmoo Spit exactly five years prior to the April 7 sentencing. The 2021 murder was the first homicide discovery in the city of Blaine in nearly four decades.
Judge Robert E. Olson handed down a 23.3-year sentence to Lynda Clare Mercy, 67, for second-degree murder with a firearm enhancement in Whatcom County Superior Court. Mercy will receive a five-year credit for the time she served in jail and is ordered to three years of community custody following her release.
The sentencing is the maximum of Mercy’s standard sentencing range. The range, which is based on the crime and her criminal history, was set between 15.25 and 23.3 years in prison including five years for the firearm enhancement.
Olson told the courtroom the sentencing was “one of the most difficult decisions” he’s made in his career on the bench.
“While I am sympathetic to the challenging circumstances of Ms. Mercy's life, nothing about the life she is able to build, despite her lifelong challenges, justifies her behavior surrounding the shooting death of Thomas Flood,” Olson said.
On the night of April 6, 2021, Mercy was idling near the Coupeville ferry terminal after returning from a trip to Port Townsend. Surveillance footage showed Mercy entering a ferry worker’s vehicle and then leaving after being confronted, saying she was seeking warmth. She was then seen heading toward where a van that Flood lived in was typically parked near the terminal.
The next morning, two teenage boys found Flood’s body in a sleeping bag next to a trail near the Semiahmoo Park parking lot. Flood was shot twice, though the medical examiner found both shots would not have been fatal if he received medical attention.
Investigators found Flood’s phone inside his van that was parked in Fairhaven. They also found a partially crushed .40-caliber bullet casing that matched a gun registered to Mercy was found near the Coupeville ferry terminal.
Investigators tracked the route driven in Flood’s van, which led them to a gas station where they obtained surveillance footage of Mercy. The public helped identify Mercy, and one of Mercy’s friends called 911 to report she gave them a box with a gun in it.
During the sentencing hearing, Flood’s relatives described him as a gentle and hard-working man whose life was senselessly lost.
Flood’s sister, Kathleen May, wrote to Olson that Flood was a gifted mechanic and carpenter who was always available to help people in crisis, especially members of Alcoholics Anonymous, where he helped others through their sobriety.
“He was honest and good and Mercy murdered him in cold blood,” Kathleen May wrote. “He leaves a void in many lives, especially mine.”
Family members said he enjoyed living a quiet, simple life. Flood enjoyed woodworking, building furniture, reading and listening to podcasts.
Flood’s nephew, Tom May, said his uncle taught him about cars and music as a kid, with early childhood memories formed around throwing a football and wrestling together.
“He had a huge impact on my years growing up,” Tom May said. “I look back and can say he was a mentor.”
Mercy declined to address the court before receiving her sentencing.
Whatcom County Public Defender Shoshana Paige requested the court give Mercy a sentence below the standard range due to Mercy’s deteriorating mental health leading up to the murder.
Mercy experienced poverty, abuse and trauma, Paige said, adding that Mercy lived most of her life with minimal criminal history. Mercy reported an incident to the police that no longer made her feel safe in her apartment shortly before Flood’s murder, which Paige said added to hypervigilance she already had from post-traumatic stress disorder.
“Recognition of the circumstances of Ms. Mercy’s life and as a complete picture of her as a human being should compel this court to temper that harshness with Mercy where it has the discretion to do so,” Paige said.
Whatcom County Chief Criminal Prosecuting Attorney Erik Sigmar asked for the higher end of the standard sentencing range because of the randomness of the murder and Mercy’s attempt to conceal and destroy the firearm. Sigmar included in his reasoning that Flood likely didn’t die immediately after being shot in his bed, and Mercy showed a lack of remorse and accountability.
Mercy was ordered to pay nearly $8,000 in restitution, $6,620 of which would go to the state’s crime victims compensation program and $1,300 to Flood’s family, mostly for burial costs.
Mercy’s sentencing came after a Whatcom County jury found her guilty on Feb. 23 following nearly a month-long trial. Since her arrest, Mercy has been held in Whatcom County Jail, where she awaits being transferred to prison as of April 8.
