By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
Remember that scene from the back parking lot at West Seattle Thriftway (WSB sponsor) in early July? As reported here that day, the man in the photo was arrested in a stolen truck spotted by a WSB reader; a pregnant woman who was with him was arrested while shopping at the store.
Now, after more than two months, charges have finally been filed against the man, 20-year-old West Seattle resident Sean Jeardoe, in that incident and a stack of other crimes, mostly committed in West Seattle.
First – thanks to John for tipping us to this, by e-mailing us the link to this Vashon Beachcomber story about Jeardoe’s recent arrest (thanks in part to victims tracking a stolen iPhone!) and charges. Court documents say he was arrested last week with the same woman as the Thriftway incident, 33-year-old Jessica Detrick. Six days after this arrest, she has just been released from jail, after pleading guilty in an unrelated incident (more on that later). The King County Jail Register shows Jeardoe’s bail is set at $75,000; we have just downloaded court documents for details of the charges filed against him Monday – which include West Seattle burglaries and thefts; read on:
The charges filed against Jeardoe are:
*Possession of a stolen vehicle, the one in which he was arrested here July 7th
*Residential burglary (July 5th break-in in Wallingford)
*Gun theft (.22 revolver stolen in Shoreline)
*Residential burglary (3200 block of 41st SW in March)
*Auto theft (2003 BMW taken in May from Fairmount Avenue in West Seattle)
*Auto theft (2008 Chevrolet pickup truck, taken in June in the 8100 block of 31st SW)
*Residential burglary (11100 block of Seola Beach Drive in May)
*Gun theft (rifle stolen in April in the 3900 block of SW Bradford)
*Residential burglary (3800 block of 39th SW in February)
*Residential burglary (2600 block of 46th SW in January)
No charges have been filed yet in connection with the cases that led to the Vashon arrest detailed in the Beachcomber story. The charging documents say that after his July 7th arrest, Jeardoe confessed to 23 burglaries over the course of less than six months, between late January and early July of this year. He told police he had sold much of the stolen property or traded it for drugs. And when he was arrested on Vashon last week, the circumstances had a few things in common with the West Seattle arrest, according to prosecutors – he and Detrick were in a stolen vehicle, with a stolen gun. Documents say he drove on the curb to try to get away.
The investigation narrative accompanying the charging documents says police believe Jeardoe and Detrick are responsible for up to 22 burglaries, 4 gun thefts, 3 auto thefts, and other crimes. It begins with the July 5th theft of the Nissan Frontier in which they were found in the supermarket lot two days later, and recounts the truck’s owner sending a report published in WSB Crime Watch, which in turn led to a reader spotting it in the lot on July 7th and calling police.
The narrative reveals more about that situation than had been made public before, since charges weren’t filed until now: Detrick’s purse included $61 in items stolen from Thriftway; the truck was found to contain the aforementioned stolen revolver as well as a stolen shotgun and items believed to belong to four burglary victims.
On July 10th, the narrative says, Jeardoe and a detective visited “numerous locations” where Jeardoe said he had committed burglaries (some of which are not included in the charges filed), from Shoreline to West Seattle to Normandy Park. At least two of the car thefts was linked to a burglary, including the BMW, which police say Jeardoe told them he took with keys he found in the owner’s home, and the Chevy truck, which contained key evidence – McDonald’s cups with the suspect’s prints.
Two days later, on July 12th, police say Jeardoe called them from jail and said he’d remembered more burglaries and wanted to point them out. And he pointed out more on July 31st. Those two dates yielded trips to eight locations in West Seattle, three in Burien.
July 31st is also the date Jeardoe was released from jail, according to the register.
The police/court narrative then skips ahead to August 22nd, when police obtained permission to search a trailer in the 2700 block of SW Kenyon, where Jeardoe was believed to have left stolen property behind. They found a variety of items, including jewelry, binoculars, camera equipment, even a 1935-D nickel.
And then on September 9th – just last week – they brought burglary victims in to look at items found in the stolen truck in which Jeardoe was arrested in the Thriftway parking lot two months earlier. The victims identified items including jewelry, a camera, even an autographed baseball.
Court documents suggest prosecutors requested $250,000 bail for Jeardoe in connection with these charges, but it was set instead at $50,000, with the remaining $25,000 related to other cases in which he was wanted. As for Jessica Detrick, she spent 11 days in jail after the July 7th arrest; while not charged in the Thriftway-lot incident, in which she was under investigation for unlawful gun possession, she was kept a while in connection with a separate attempted-burglary case (from last December in south King County). When arrested on Vashon with Jeardoe last week, she was again held in connection with that case, for five days, until she pleaded guilty yesterday, and was sentenced to the equivalent of 70 days she had already spent in jail; she is now out of jail, with no charges filed so far in connection with the cases in which police believe she participated with Jeardoe.
We’re adding this case, of course, to the WSB watch list, and will be following up.
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