A woman who stole over $200,000 in products from various stores in and around South King County, among other locations, pleaded guilty and received an alternative sentence, keeping her out of prison.
On Nov. 7, Shellonda Keychell Daniel, 28, received a mental health sentencing alternative as requested by her defense, and multiple counts were dismissed after pleading guilty in three different cases related to organized retail theft and robbery that spanned between October 2022 and December 2023, with her last theft in Federal Way. Daniel allegedly stole hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of items from Ulta Beauty stores in Auburn, Federal Way, Renton and other cities.
According to court documents, Daniel will be in community custody for 36 months while she participates in a mental health treatment program in Kent. She must obey the rules of the program, abstain from drugs and alcohol, and secure employment so she can begin paying restitution to the stores she stole from. Daniel was ordered to pay $205,571 in restitution to Ulta.
Between Oct. 1, 2022, and Dec. 27, 2023, Daniel committed 28 thefts from Ulta Stores across five counties. According to documents, Daniel targeted Ulta stores in Lynnwood, Marysville, Silverdale, Auburn, Federal Way, Renton, Covington, Lake Stevens, West and North Seattle, Puyallup, Olympia, Bellingham, Marysville, Tukwila and Issaquah. Daniel’s case, filed in 2024, served as the Organized Retail Crime Unit’s second-ever felony criminal case, according to the attorney general’s office.
Daniel’s charges
• Case filed in 2022: One count of first-degree retail theft and one count of second-degree robbery. Daniel pleaded guilty to these charges.
• Case filed in 2023: One count of first-degree organized retail theft, one count of second-degree organized retail theft, two counts of second-degree robbery, one count of theft of a motor vehicle and one count of second-degree identity theft. One count of second-degree organized retail theft and one count of second-degree robbery were dismissed following her guilty plea.
• Case filed in 2024: Two counts of first-degree organized retail theft. One count of first-degree organized retail theft was dismissed following her guilty plea.
According to Daniel’s sentence recommendation from her defense, she began committing organized retail theft because she was being assaulted and forced to do so. Her recommendation stated that at the program she was sent to at sentencing, she would receive mental health services and housing for her family.
The recommendation from Daniel’s defense stated that they disagreed with the prosecutor’s sentence recommendation and stated that it was clear that Daniel needed mental health and chemical dependency treatment. Her defense stated that Daniel had a strong desire to participate in treatment.
Prosecutors requested that Daniel serve a total sentence of 73.5 months — about six years — in the Department of Corrections for all three of her cases. In prosecutors’ sentencing recommendation, they argued that Daniel has a lengthy criminal record, and it was not until she faced her highest sentence that she wanted to participate in treatment. Additionally, prosecutors argued that if she had complied with the conditions of release in her 2022 and 2023 cases, she would not have committed the crimes in her case filed in 2024.
Details of the cases
In Daniel’s 2022 case, in July 2022, she, along with others, in two different instances, stole high-end clothing from a store in Seattle, pepper-spraying security guards during one of the thefts. In that case, the thefts she participated in resulted in $33,890 worth of bags being stolen from the store.
In Daniel’s 2023 case, in March 2023, she along with others stole $1,062 worth of products from Lululemon in Bellevue. Later that month, she and others stole $19,522 worth of products from Nordstrom in Bellevue. In April 2023, she then stole from Nordstrom on two different occasions, stealing $13,396 worth of products.
In Daniel’s 2024 case, documents state that on Dec. 18, 2022, Daniel and an accomplice entered Ulta in Auburn and began concealing merchandise in a bag. Mall security and an Auburn officer approached Daniel, but she became verbally aggressive and threw a white shopping bag as they approached. Documents state that in this instance, $4,453 worth of merchandise was stolen from the Auburn Ulta.
Documents state that on Dec. 19, 2022, Daniel and an accomplice entered Ulta in Federal Way, and before she left without paying for products she concealed, she pulled out a large canister, which is believed to have been bear mace, and told an employee that she would not touch her. The last Ulta theft she ever committed was on Dec. 27, 2023, where Daniel began breaking glass display cases to retrieve products. In total, she stole $9,164 worth of products from the Federal Way Ulta, according to documents.
At the Renton Ulta location, Daniel and usually at least one other accomplice stole from it five times. Documents state that Daniel stole from the Renton location on Dec. 14, 2022, Jan. 5, 2023, Jan. 14, 2023, Jan. 21, 2023, and on Nov. 18, 2023. She stole $35,999 worth of products from the Renton Ulta.
Documents state that the Attorney General’s Office worked with Ulta’s store investigator on the serial thefts, using CCTV footage, loss reports, and interviews with staff and customers to identify Daniel and build a case. On Dec. 28, 2023, the Snohomish County Violent Offender Task Force apprehended and arrested Daniel in Renton at a Burger King drive-through.
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