A Puyallup man who killed a homeless Tacoma woman and then stabbed a worker at a nearby gym in September 2021 has been sentenced to more than 30 years in prison after multiple delays related to mental health evaluations.

Following a mental health provider’s report last year that Renaldo L. Dozier, 51, was likely exaggerating his psychiatric symptoms, the defendant accepted a plea deal last month for the second-degree murder of 40-year-old Rikki Millerup and first-degree assault of another woman. Pierce County Superior Court Judge Joseph Evans sentenced him 367 months, minus time served, on March 3.

After his arrest, Dozier told Tacoma police that he left his Puyallup home a day before the attacks, walked to Tacoma and had “his ears checked on” at the hospital because he was hearing voices and having thoughts about hurting people, according to charging documents. He stole a scalpel and then walked around the city to deal with “bad thoughts and voices” in his head until he found a knife.

He said he came across Millerup’s camp on the 9700 block of Pacific Avenue, spoke with her, left for cigarettes, and stabbed her with the scalpel when he returned, charging documents say. Surveillance footage showed he returned to Millerup’s camp multiple times to rummage through her things and then went to Planet Fitness next door, stabbed the receptionist and stole her debit card.

Dozier returned to Planet Fitness about two hours later and circled both the stabbing victim and a manager’s cars, motioning for them to get out, according to charging documents. The manager called 911, and police found Dozier nearby.

In jail, mental health providers evaluated him during each of the past two years, according to court documents. The first evaluation concluded his primary symptom was depression. A second last fall determined the “highly atypical” psychosis symptoms he was reporting did not match up with his health history and that he appeared to be playing dumb on his legal knowledge.

“This presentation was indicative of exaggeration and feigning of psychiatric symptoms,” the evaluator wrote in court documents.

Dozier also expressed a belief that he could be found not guilty if he was declared insane, according to court documents.

Millerup’s brother and family members of the other stabbing victim spoke in court prior to Dozier’s sentencing, according to court records. Dozier also made a statement before Evans sentenced him.

A person purporting to be a close former friend of Millerup commented on the Tacoma Stories blog, which tracks local homicides, that she knew the victim from kindergarten but later lost touch with her. The person who commented later began working on Pacific Avenue and saw a homeless woman many times on her way to work. When news of the killing broke, she hoped it wasn’t the woman she’d observed for several years.

“It was uncommon for me to see young homeless women by themselves on the street, at the time, so she stood out. I didn’t recognize her, but I felt a connection,” the commenter wrote. When the medical examiner identified the victim as Millerup, “At first it was just pure disbelief. There’s no way that the little homeless girl that I drove past for years was my best friend from kindergarten.”

“The honest truth is that I had a negative outlook on homeless people and this extended to her, when I was unaware of who she was,” the commenter wrote later. “And that’s hard to swallow. The realization that every homeless person is someone’s ‘Rikki.’”