West Seattle Crime Watch: North Delridge gunfire suspect charged

Another followup on the North Delridge gunfire incident last weekend: The King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office has charged 29-year-old Dale G. Hiller with first-degree unlawful-firearm possession and two drug charges, one for meth possession and one for cocaine possession. Hiller, as reported here, was arrested at Delridge/Genesee late Saturday night; In a followup Monday, we reported that his bail was set at $150,000 on Monday and he was released after posting bond hours later. The charging documents say Hiller lost his gun-possession rights after being convicted of second-degree assault in early 2007, also noting: “He has a lengthy history of gun crimes, drug crimes, and violent crimes.” The documents recap what we reported after getting the probable-cause documents on Monday, that a backpack and shell casings were found near the arrest scene; the former contained a .22 caliber revolver as well as drugs and cash that totaled, with what was found in Hiller’s wallet, almost $3,000. His photo published here is from the Department of Corrections; as we reported in the discussion following Monday’s story, he was sentenced in 2013 to 3 1/2 years for an attempted home-invasion-style burglary in Burien. The charging documents say that his post-prison probation (“community custody”) ended on May 2nd, five days before his North Delridge arrest. He is due in court May 25th for arraignment.

Donna May 11, 2016 (4:38 pm)

maybe they will lock him up for a while. Looks like a thug.

Double Dub Resident May 11, 2016 (5:03 pm)

Quote: The charging documents say Hiller lost his gun-possession rights after being convicted of second-degree assault in early 2007, also noting: “He has a lengthy history of gun crimes, drug crimes, and violent crimes.”

he was sentenced in 2013 to 3 1/2 years for an attempted home-invasion-style burglary in Burien.

I wonder if our impotent sentencing guidelines will finally put this guy where he belongs for a decent amount of time, this time?

Lawn Flamingo May 11, 2016 (5:05 pm)

Clearly his post-prison probation really worked wonders. A whole 5 days huh? High five Dale! It’s sickening to think about how easy it is for criminals like this to post bail and get released from prison after shooting a gun around in a park where neighborhood kids play. I hope they lock him up for much longer this time!

B May 11, 2016 (5:08 pm)

Do we have three strikes laws in WA? Would that kick in here?

WSB May 11, 2016 (5:13 pm)

I don’t know if anything of which he had been convicted was a “strike” offense – have not looked up his entire record, and for example, nothing here would be a strike offense. Don’t know if there have been any changes in the law but I trust journalist Casey McNerthney, who wrote this for seattlepi.com in 2010: http://blog.seattlepi.com/seattle911/2010/11/17/what-crimes-count-toward-the-three-strikes-law/

Carole May 11, 2016 (5:57 pm)

This 29 yr old felon, recently released from pirson, was able to come up with $15,000 to post bond. Or assets to secure bond. Or family to post it. Lucky guy.

B May 11, 2016 (6:55 pm)

Well, he did have $3k just in his wallet…

Carole May 11, 2016 (6:01 pm)

To clarify, this guy either came up with $150,000 cash OR $15,000 cash and enough secured assets to cover the ENTIRE bail amount should he skip.

Elle Nell May 11, 2016 (7:03 pm)

I have to add, not only does he look like a thug but he IS a thug … This literally is the cat you don’t want to encounter down a dark alley unless you want to get high… Just sayin. Throw away the key

Kravitz May 11, 2016 (7:08 pm)

What a lovely specimen. Why is piece of crap like this still allowed out to continually reoffend? Are we simply waiting for him to actually take an innocent life? I am completely disgusted by the system that allows this to happen. Maybe we’ll be in luck and he’ll OD on the drugs he’s peddling before he’s able skip town. Good riddance, I’d say.

Double Dub Resident May 11, 2016 (7:11 pm)

Do you know this person personally, Elle Nell?

Joe May 11, 2016 (8:39 pm)

I don’t believe you need 10 % to post bond. You just need to be able to put up enough for a bond company to post bond for you. They don’t necessarily require 10%.

sam-c May 11, 2016 (9:04 pm)

Thanks for posting a photo of the scumbag

Atomicoven May 11, 2016 (9:33 pm)

So again my fellow West Seattlites. 150K bail and he was out in hours and with multiple charges. Folks it’s time to elect some new judges.

Steve May 11, 2016 (9:40 pm)

Don’t worry west Seattle, with your current city government you have nothing to worry about!

Seattlite May 11, 2016 (9:50 pm)

Career criminal. Lock him away before he hurts or kills an innocent bystander.

Scott May 12, 2016 (8:25 am)

Im sorry but if you lost your gun-possession rights and your next crime involves a gun then there should be no bail. There also needs to be a stiffer penalties and longer jail times for people like that. This is the type of person that we do not want on the streets and I don’t care what you say he is and never will be a stand up citizen. He has already provided that.

wscommuter May 12, 2016 (9:04 am)

WSB – I think the PI article you cited is off-point – that describes the “2-strike” persistent offender statute for sex offenders. While all of the crimes listed there are indeed also strikes under the “3 strike” persistent offender statute, the “3 strikes” law also includes a few non-sex offense felonies, such as robbery (first and second degree) and assault (first and second degree) even if committed without a sexual motivation. So, for example, the knucklehead this article about, who apparently had an Assault 2 conviction in 2007, means he has at least one strike against him.

I’m all for punishing – severely – people who commit violent crimes, especially with guns. But I’ll repeat what I’ve said before when people rant here about crime and punishment, blaming judges – criminal sentences are set by the legislature and judges have very little leeway. If you don’t like the law, talk to your representatives. Likewise, bail decisions, with the exception of homicides and other equally serious crimes, are as much driven by the realities of the King County Jail’s capacity to house people. If you are willing to raise taxes to pay for more jails and more courts (and realize the courts and prosecutors office have been shrunken in recent years due to budget cuts), then vote for people who will raise those taxes to fund those needs.

Because I don’t have much patience with the folks who want to say “lock up the bad guys and throw away the keys, but don’t you dare raise my taxes.”

Tony C. May 13, 2016 (1:24 am)

I most identify with Steve’s response and love his sense of sarcasm. His sarcasm offers a good dose of truth and I’ll share shortly why I relate to his words. I also like WSCOMMUter’s response. Although I cannot say I support the idea of punishment which is just another way of saying, “Get out of my face and don’t bother me”. I prefer to approach the issue of retribution more with my eyes on the consequences and understanding of the cause and effect of the bad deed by the person behind the action performed. Punishment fails and doesn’t really work whereas rehabilitation does offer hope for the bad actions performed by a misguided person. I’ve always have been interested in prison reform and shortly after retiring I got involved in volunteering time at a WA State prison. As far as I could see there were no attempts to offer serious reform to inmates. What I saw was basically a warehouse of misfits wasting their lives away. If that’s the best our society can do then it is no surprise to me that someone like Dale G. Hiller turns out the way he is. It goes back to, “Get out of my face and don’t bother me”. This brings me back to Steve’s comment. Two of the three conditions compromising the quality of life in the neighborhood I live in: Speeding vehicles (public school buses are among the worse violators), and lack of police presence, where I live. The third condition was taken care of by me. I decided to start a petition, have interested neighbors sign it, and give the document to our Seattle City Councilmember. The councilmember said she would get back to us in about a week. That was three months ago and have not heard back from her. This petition was presented to the Seattle City Councilmember way before the shooting on April 27 and early morning of April 28th. What are we doing to ourselves and each other in growing people that are reckless to the point that they don’t have any concerns or feelings in fatally extinguishing a life? Why do we allow elected politicians to remain on the job when they don’t do the job they were elected to do?

Sorry, comment time is over.