Woman suffers minor injury in drive-by shooting

By Seattle Times staff

Police are investigating a drive-by shooting early this morning in South Seattle that left one woman injured.

At 3:39 a.m., a 911 call came in reporting that shots had been fired near 32nd Avenue South and South Atlantic Street, said police department spokesman Jeff Kappel.

It appears that two groups of people, in two separate cars, were arguing, he said. As the exchange grew more heated, someone from one car fired shots at the other vehicle three times.

The car that was hit sped off to a nearby residence and someone — it's not clear who — called 911, Kappel said. After officers arrived, they found the woman in the car had suffered a minor injury to her back. It's unclear if the injury was caused by a bullet or glass shrapnel, Kappel said.

Police have no description of the other car or the people inside it. Gang unit detectives are "actively investigating," Kappel said.
By Seattle Times staff

Seattle man sentenced to 20 years for officer's slaying

By Natalie Singer
Seattle Times staff reporter

A 31-year-old Seattle man was sentenced to 20 years in prison this morning for the 1994 slaying of Seattle police Officer Antonio Terry. Quentin Ervin was serving time for a second-degree-murder conviction in Terry's slaying when the case was refiled as aggravated first-degree murder and attempted first-degree murder after King County prosecutors last year were given a green light to pursue the more serious charges by a state Supreme Court decision.

Ervin last week pleaded guilty to the first-degree-murder charge, and in exchange prosecutors reduced the charge from aggravated murder and dropped an attempted-murder charge.

Senior Deputy Prosecutor Scott O'Toole said his office would seek a 20-year sentence.

On June 4, 1994, Terry stopped to help Ervin and his friend Eric Smiley, whose vehicle had broken down on an Interstate 5 offramp. Terry was in plainclothes when he was fatally shot with a bullet prosecutors said came from a gun fired either by Ervin or Smiley.

"To this day we don't know who fired the fatal shot," O'Toole said after Ervin pleaded guilty.

Smiley was convicted of first-degree murder in 1997 and was sentenced to 33 years in prison.

Ervin originally faced three separate charges: aggravated first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder and second-degree felony murder — based on the commission of an assault during the crime.

A jury was required to deliberate each charge individually. According to the jurors' instructions, if they couldn't agree or found Ervin not guilty on one charge, they were to move on to the next, less serious charge. If they reached a guilty verdict for any charge, they were to stop.

Unable to come to a verdict on aggravated first-degree murder and then on the attempted first-degree-murder charge after five weeks of deliberation, jurors convicted Ervin in 1996 of second-degree felony murder.

But in 2002, a Supreme Court ruling known as the Andress decision nullified Ervin's conviction by throwing out the law that covered the felony-murder crime. In Andress, the justices said that an assault leading to an unintended death cannot be a murder but instead must be prosecuted as manslaughter.

The state decided to retry him on the first two charges — aggravated first-degree and attempted first-degree murder.

Information from Seattle Times archives is included in this report

Two shot at Folklife Festival

By HECTOR CASTRO
P-I REPORTER

Seattle police are investigating a shooting that happened early Saturday evening at the Seattle Center during Northwest Folklife Festival activities.

Police reported that around 6:40 p.m. a man and woman were shot near the center's fountain, though neither person suffered life-threatening injuries.

A suspected gunman was taken into custody and a firearm recovered, police reported.

Penalty urged for lewd e-mails at jail

By Nancy Bartley
Seattle Times staff reporter

Five King County corrections officers are facing three-day suspensions for passing sexually explicit videos, cartoons and photos through the county e-mail.

It's the latest in a string of sexual-misconduct offenses and medical complaints that have plagued the jail over the past few years. Jail Superintendent Reed Holtgeerts recommended the suspension for the officers, who have not been named. But before it goes into effect, they have the right to present evidence that might explain their actions.

The e-mails were found in September and a decision to discipline the employees was reached in November. The officers all work at the downtown Seattle jail, said jail spokesman Maj. William Hayes.

The jail issued a statement on the incident only on Wednesday. Hayes said it took the department time to complete its investigation.

A U.S. Department of Justice report released in November criticized the jail for not controlling infectious diseases and for exposing inmates to sexual assaults. The jail has a no-tolerance policy for sexual misconduct, said Hayes.

The jail administration did not agree with the findings of the Justice Department's report, which threatened the county with a lawsuit if the jail's problems were not corrected. At least two inmates died from inadequate medical care and there were three jail suicides in the past three years that were likely preventable, the report noted.

Since then, a former inmate, Matthew Wisecarver, has filed a federal lawsuit alleging jail conditions were so unsanitary he contracted MRSA, an antibiotic-resistant infection. One inmate died of an infection in 2004. In 2003, the number of infections at the jail increased from 291 to 623.

Four King County corrections officers have been convicted of sexual misconduct and related charges over the past several years.

Nancy Bartley: 206-464-8522 or nbartley@seattletimes.com

Man arrested after assault, car theft and South Everett chase

By Jennifer Sullivan
Seattle Times staff reporter

Snohomish County sheriff's deputies arrested a man this morning for reportedly attacking two people, stealing a woman's BMW and leading officers on a pursuit through South Everett.

Shortly after 7 a.m., deputies were dispatched to an assisted-living center in the 11300 block of Third Place West after a report of a man walking into the facility and hitting an employee in the face, said sheriff's spokeswoman Rebecca Hover.

The suspect left the center and went to a parking lot across the street and asked a woman to help jump-start his car. The man then pushed the woman out of the way, grabbed her keys and drove off in her BMW, Hover said.

Deputies chased the man to a dead-end street, where he jumped out of the car and ran, Hover said. Deputies set up a containment scene and brought in tracking dogs.

Around 9:30 a.m., a woman in the 9600 block of Lowell-Larimer Road, close to the containment scene, called 911 to report a strange man on her property. The carjacking and assault suspect was booked into the Snohomish County Jail on a variety of charges, Hover said.

Jennifer Sullivan: 206-464-8294 or jensullivan@seattletimes.com

Latest "groper" attack provides more clues

By Jennifer Sullivan
Seattle Times staff reporter

For two years, Seattle police have been a few steps behind a man they say has attacked nearly two dozen women in Beacon Hill and Rainier Valley.

But after an attack on Saturday morning in the 7500 block of Renton Avenue South, police say they might have a better line on the man they call "the groper." South Precinct Capt. Les Liggins said witnesses to the recent attack have provided sexual-assault-unit detectives with better descriptions of the assailant and the vehicle he was seen driving.

"We're very much on this," Liggins said Monday.

Witnesses to the attack around 10 a.m. Saturday told police they saw a man grope an Asian or Asian-American woman who was walking with a toddler. The woman screamed.

A witness tried to take photos of the man's car and license plate with a cellphone camera, but the suspect knocked the witness down and stole the phone, police said.

The man is described as black, about 5-foot-10, with light-colored shaving bumps on the left side of his face. Earlier descriptions were even more sketchy, and no one had previously provided a vehicle description.

Witnesses said the woman ran north with the child after she was attacked. Police have not yet spoken with her and hope that she comes forward.

Seattle police Lt. James Koutsky said this was the 23rd attack on girls and women in the area since August 2006. None of the victims, who range from teenagers to 52, has been raped or critically injured in the attacks. Most were Asian or Asian American.

Police said the man normally runs off after his victims have screamed for help. Many of the attacks have occurred at bus stops.

Police said this is the first time the man has attacked since March, and the sixth time since January. In January, the suspect grabbed and chased two girls ages 13 and 14.

The attacks have generated fear in several South Seattle neighborhoods. The Chinese Information and Service Center in Seattle has warned women about the attacks and even offered lessons on self-defense tactics. In March, when the center offered a community meeting about the attacks, more than 100 people attended.

Police are asking that anyone with information about the suspect or the most recent attack call the department's sexual-assault unit at 206-684-5575.

Jennifer Sullivan: 206-464-8294 or jensullivan@seattletimes.com

Police Officer Steals Marijuana

Woman arrested for DWI, beaten by police off camera

Two stabbed in Central District

By AMY ROLPH
P-I REPORTER

The Seattle Police Department is investigating a double stabbing that happened in Seattle's Central District neighborhood early Sunday morning.

A call came into police about 4:20 a.m. from an apartment tenant who found a woman in bleeding from stab wounds in the doorway of his residence in the 100 block of Eighth Avenue, police spokesman Mark Jamieson said. Around that same time, someone else reported finding a man bleeding from knife wounds near the intersection of Broadway and Yesler Way.

Both of the victims were transported to nearby Harborview Medical Center with what appeared to police to be life-threatening injuries. Homicide investigators have been dispatched, Jamieson said.

"It is believed that these two incidents are connected, and it is domestic violence in nature," he said.

Police believe it's likely that the couple knows each other.

Washington State Case Law Update

Supreme Court

State v. Becklin: The court held that a trial court's response in the affirmative to a jury question regarding whether stalking could be accomplished through directing a third party to harass the victim was an accurate statement of the law, and that it was not improper for the judge to issue the answer after jury deliberations had begun, given that both parties had argued the issue to the jury. A copy of the decision may be viewed at: State v. Becklin

State v. Gatewood: The court held that officers did not have specific articulable facts indicating criminal activity observing that the defendant looked surprised as the officers passed the bus stop where he was sitting, turned his body to the right as if to hide something and then, after they had circled back to follow the defendant, observed him walking away from their patrol car. The court found that the officers conducted an impermissible speculative criminal investigation when they subsequently performed a nonconsensual seizure of the defendant, and suppressed all evidence after the stop. A copy of the decision may be viewed at: State v. Gatewood

State v. Weyrich: The Court allowed vacation of a guilty plea when the defendant had not been informed of the possible statutory maximum sentence under the plea, holding that the statutory maximum sentence was a direct consequence of the plea. A copy of the decision may be viewed at: State v. Weyrich


Division One Court of Appeals

State v. Reeves: The Court held that a notebook of photographs depicting minors in sexually explicit conduct in violation of RCW 9.68A.070 did not count as a single unit of prosecution, rather, the court adhered to prior holdings finding that the crime was a unit of prosecution for each photograph, and that prosecuting in such a manner was not a violation of double jeopardy. A copy of the decision may be found at: State v. Reeves



Division Two Court of Appeals

State v. Jones: The defendant's conviction was reversed by the Court, which found that the prosecutor had committed prejudicial misconduct denying the defendant a fair trial by improperly bolstering the credibility of the informant and the arresting officer during closing argument, improperly cross-examining the arresting officer regarding why the informant did not testify, and asserting in closing argument that the informant did not testify because he was afraid of the defendant. A copy of the decision may be viewed at: State v. Jones


Division Three Court of Appeals

State v. Bashaw: Defendant's conviction for selling methamphetamine within 1,000 feet of a school bus stop was upheld by the Court, which found that use of a measuring wheel was appropriate to determine the distance of the sale from the bus stop, and that the jury instruction properly required jury unanimity to impose the sentencing enhancement. A copy of the decision may be viewed at: State v. Bashaw


State v. Montes-Malindas: The Court held that the arresting officers conducted a pretextual stop when they stoped a van for driving without its headlights illuminated, despite the fact that the van had turned its headlights on prior to the stop, based on earlier observations of suspicious behavior of the van's occupants in a parking lot. A copy of the decision may be viewed at: State v. Montes-Malindas

Philadelphia Police Beating

Medical Marijuana Vending Machine

Man charged with hate crime in taxi driver beating

P-I STAFF

A Renton man accused of using a racial slur while beating up a cab driver and stealing his wallet was charged Friday with first-degree robbery and malicious harassment, a hate crime.

Police say Tejinder S. Dhaliwal, 31, attacked driver Elias Ussuf on April 29 in Tukwila, beating the man so badly he was left unconscious.

Dhaliwal began yelling and swearing, using a derogatory racial term, when Ussuf told Dhaliwal he could not smoke in his cab, according to court documents.

Both men ended up outside the car, where police say Dhaliwal attacked Ussuf, punching him, pounding his face into the pavement, then stole his wallet.

King County prosecutors said Ussuf showed signs of a serious head injury.

Dhaliwal is set to answer to the charges Monday at the Maleng Regional Justice Center in Kent.

Alcohol and speed blamed in fatal Eastside crash, police say

By Seattle Times staff

Alcohol and speed were to blame in the crash that killed a 30-year-old Kirkland man early Friday who lost control of his car on Avondale Road Northeast, struck several trees and landed on the side of the road, police said.

Investigators determined the man was driving more than 100 mph and not wearing a seat belt, police said.

The man was traveling south on Avondale Road in the Redmond area shortly before 3 a.m. when residents heard a crash and called 911, police said.

Police Department spokesman Jim Bove said the white Cadillac came to rest on the east side of Avondale Road along Bear Creek, facing the northbound lanes, after it had sheared off several trees and was ripped into sections by the impact of the crash.

The car left a lengthy trail of skid marks before leaving the roadway, Bove said.

"Basically, it did a 360," he said.

A baby seat was found in the back seat of the Cadillac, and investigators were concerned someone might have been ejected from the vehicle, said Bove, but a search was done and no other occupants were found.

Avondale Road has a 40-mph speed limit and was closed for more than seven hours while the investigation was conducted.

Judge orders competency evaluation in Carnation slayings

By Mike Carter
Seattle Times Staff Reporter

A King County judge has ordered that Michele Anderson, the 29-year-old Carnation woman accused of killing six members of her family on Christmas Eve, undergo a competency evaluation.

Anderson's defense had asked for the evaluation in a sealed motion, and had sought to close the courtroom so they could argue their case. However, Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Ramsdell said Friday he would not close the courtroom, and that there would be no need anyway because he was granting the request without hearing arguments.

Anderson will be seen by two psychiatrists — one appointed by the defense, the other by prosecutors — while being held in the King County Jail.

Ramsdell said little that shed light on the behavior Anderson's defense has witnessed that has led them to think she may not be competent to stand trial. He said only that her attorneys had filed attorney-client materials under seal that "contain substantive support for the motion ... they have a reason to doubt the defendant's competency."

During Friday's hearing, Anderson attempted to pass a letter written on a sheet of yellow paper to the judge, but Ramsdell said he didn't want to look at it and returned it to her by the court clerk.

The judge explained that he was concerned the letter might contain some information that he would be required to act on — perhaps even pass on to prosecutors — and that he would rather allow the competency evaluation to take place first.

A lawyer for The Seattle Times had filed a motion Thursday opposing closure of the courtroom to the public, saying the defense hasn't publicly provided any compelling reasons to do so.

Anderson's lawyers are trying to persuade King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg not to seek the death penalty against the woman, saying mental-health problems should make her ineligible for execution.

Anderson and her boyfriend, Joseph McEnroe, are each charged with six counts of aggravated murder in connection with the fatal shootings of Anderson's parents, Wayne, 60, and Judith Anderson, 61; her brother, Scott, and his wife, Erica, both 32; and the couple's two children, Olivia, 5, and Nathan, 3, inside the elder Andersons' Carnation home.

Mike Carter: 206-464-3706 or mcarter@seattletimes.com

Medical marijuana knocks Seattle musician off transplant list

By LORI MATSUKAWA / KING 5 News

SEATTLE – A Seattle rock musician is dying after being denied a liver transplant by the University of Washington Medical Center partly because of his use of medical marijuana.

Timothy Garon is dying of liver failure after living with Hepatitis C for decades. The medical marijuana he uses is prescribed by his doctor. However, marijuana use is considered an addictive behavior and a reason to deny a transplant.

Garon's doctor says he didn't know the prescription would affect Garon's eligibility.

"I thought it was very unfair they have these guidelines," said Garon.

Garon's son says if the UW Medical Center transplant committee had told him early on that his father needed to go through a treatment program and stay off pot for 60 days, they might have been able to pull it off, but by the time they found out, Garon was off the list. His condition had deteriorated.

"If they had started things early on six months prior to that, because he went downhill really fast, he may have had a chance," said Lennon Garon, Timothy's son. At least he would've had a chance to get on the list, he would have had a chance to get a new liver and live.

"He's not the first person that this happened to. He's not going to be the last person until these policies are changed."

While unable to comment specifically on Garon's case, the UW Medical Center said in a statement that medical marijuana is never the sole reason for rejecting a patient.

"The committee looks at the period of abstinence the candidate has demonstrated to date, efforts made to maintain this abstinence and the potential to abuse again," writes a medical center spokesperson.

With so few organs available, the UW Medical Center says patients selected are ultimately those with a reasonable chance of survival and a good outcome. In a given year, there are approximately 98,000 patients waiting for organs in the U.S. and only 6,000 donors.

Garon is the lead singer for Nearly Dan, a Steely Dan cover-band. He remains charged with manufacturing marijuana for his arrest in December at a rental home in Mountlake Terrace.

Man, 21, charged in shooting after book-release party

By Seattle Times staff

King County prosecutors filed charges today against a 21-year-old Federal Way man in connection with a fatal shooting after a book-release party last month.

Lovelychild Manuel is accused of killing DeVon Guidry, 24, of Renton, after an April 13 party celebrating the release of a book about the rise of hip-hop star Dr. Dre. The King County Medical Examiner's Office said Guidry, who was among nearly 300 people who attended the event, was shot once in the head and once in the chest.

Manuel was arrested April 16 after tipsters contacted authorities to tell police his whereabouts, according to court charging papers. Manuel, who police say is a gang member, has been charged with second-degree murder and second-degree assault.

Manuel is being held at the King County Jail in lieu of $1 million bail.

Seattle-area police and federal agents round up 55 wanted on arrest warrants

By Jennifer Sullivan
Seattle Times staff reporter

The King County Sheriff's Office announced this morning that officers from several Seattle-area police agencies as well as federal agents have rounded up 55 people wanted on arrest warrants during a special emphasis last week.

Authorities focused on 130 active warrants during the sweep titled Operation CROW (Cops Rounding Up Outstanding Warrants), said sheriff's spokesman Rodney Chinnick. Officers from 20 agencies participated in the emphasis, which lasted from Wednesday through Friday, Chinnick said.

Among the suspects arrested were four wanted in the illegal possession of a firearm, 16 in burglaries, four in robberies, 20 in assaults, three regarding sex crimes, three in identify theft and several on drug charges, Chinnick said.

Investigators are still searching for suspects who remain outstanding.

"We may be out again on a similar operation in six months or a year," Chinnick said.

During the sweep, members of the Pacific Northwest Fugitive Apprehension Task Force seized more than $11,000 in cash, a vehicle, and approximately 3 ½ ounces of cocaine and heroin packaged for distribution.

The sweep comes nearly eight months after 249 people were arrested by federal, state and local law-enforcement agencies during a Puget Sound-area roundup organized by the U.S. Marshals Service.

Jennifer Sullivan: 206-464-8294 or jensullivan@seattletimes.com

Heroin, cocaine dealer sentenced to 13 years

By Karen Johnson

Seattle Times staff reporter

A 28-year-old man who sold heroin and cocaine while attending classes at Cascadia Community College in Bothell was sentenced today to 13 years and four months in prison.

At Javier "Cookie" Sanchez-Vasquez's sentencing in U.S. District Court in Seattle, Judge Ricardo Martinez said the volume of drugs and cash found in connection to the operation was "one of the highest we've seen in federal court."

Sanchez-Vasquez was arrested April 9, 2007, when investigators found 35 pounds of cocaine and more than 22 pounds of heroine in his Kirkland home and a "stash house" he kept in North Seattle.

His arrest came after a nine-month investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Snohomish Regional Drug Task Force.

"The [organization's] tentacles were fairly wide, from South Seattle to North Snohomish [County] and even out to Kirkland," said Adam Cornell, special assistant in the U.S. Attorney's Office at the time of the arrests.

Investigators used a confidential informant and court-authorized telephone taps to confirm Sanchez-Vasquez as the alleged ringleader, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Sanchez-Vasquez and several of his associates, who are in the United States illegally, spoke the indigenous Mexican dialect Mixteco Bajo during their telephone calls, Cornell said. Mixteco Bajo is spoken by about 1 million people and is a regional language in southern Mexico.

In a report released today, Cornell called Sanchez-Vasquez "the head of the snake," because the college student "had time to take classes at community college while his underlings were running around delivering drugs."

Sanchez-Vazquez will likely be deported after serving his prison term, federal officials said.

Three others also have been charged and convicted for their involvement in the drug ring. Wilver Mira-Flores, 27; Carlos Velazquez, 31; Rodolfo Navarro-Gomez, 28; and Ramirez Castro, 31, each pleaded guilty to various drug-related crimes last year.

Investigators seized more that $1.1 million in cash Sanchez-Vasquez had stored in a various places around the state.

By Natalie Singer

By Natalie Singer
Seattle Times staff reporter

A woman who was drunk when she drove 90 mph in the wrong direction on Interstate 5, causing a head-on collision that left one teenager dead and another seriously injured, was sentenced Friday to 6 ½ years in prison, the maximum sentence under state law.

Cerrissa Christensen, who turns 28 today, had a history of driving under the influence and had a blood-alcohol level three times the legal limit when police caught her after the crash that killed Bawny McQuistin, 18, and injured Eric Hillstrom, 19, both of Tacoma.

Before King County Superior Court Judge Nicole MacInnes delivered her sentence, the families of the victims spoke in court about the emotional devastation caused by Christensen, who pleaded guilty last month.

"I don't know where to start," said Sterling Smith, McQuistin's father, his voice breaking. "She walked out of the door one day, never to be seen or held again. I thought we had all the time in the world. She was my baby; she was my sweetie. I miss her terribly."

McQuistin's mother, Leslie, described her daughter as an avid reader, an A student, a snowboarder and a lover of babies, animals and foreign films, who was independent and unique. "She was just testing her wings when she was killed," Leslie McQuistin said.

Sue Hillstrom, mother of Eric Hillstrom — who said in court he has no memory of the accident or some of his life before it — said legislators have not passed tough enough laws for drunken drivers.

"The defendant has a terrible record. If someone somewhere along the line had taken it more seriously, she would not have been on the road," she said.

Christensen, who had a blood-alcohol level of 0.25 percent — well above the legal limit of 0.08 — when her blood was tested after the Oct. 9 crash, cried as she watched a video of Bawny McQuistin's life.

"I hope, someday, you can find the mercy in your hearts to forgive me," she then told the victims' friends and families.

Police said Christensen was speeding south in the northbound lanes of I-5 through Tukwila when officers pulled alongside with their lights flashing.

Other drivers were swerving to avoid her when Christensen's vehicle struck the truck being driven by Eric Hillstrom head-on, killing Bawny McQuistin. Hillstrom suffered severe head injuries, a lacerated liver, bruised lungs and a broken femur and hip.

When questioned afterward, Christensen cursed at the trooper who accused her of hitting and killing someone, charging papers said.

On Dec. 17, 2002, Christensen received a deferred prosecution for what was apparently her first DUI, on the condition she have no traffic violations, consume no alcohol or drugs and refrain from driving without a license for five years, court records show. In that case, her blood-alcohol level was 0.20 percent.

"You knew the potential of what you could do," MacInnes told her. MacInnes said she understood the frustration with the sentencing limit.

"You can't equate months and years in prison with somebody's life, but that is the only ability I have," she said.

Natalie Singer: 206-464-2704 or nsinger@seattletimes.com

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