A convicted child-killer is in jail in lieu of a million dollars bail, charged with raping a woman who was incapacitated because of an untreated injury, and court documents say it happened in February in West Seattle.
The suspect is 40-year-old Chayce A. Hanson, convicted of killing his girlfriend’s 2-year-old daughter, Nenah Walters, in 2000, by kicking her down a flight of stairs. In 2001, he was sentenced to 25 years in prison. Five years later, a Supreme Court ruling led to a lesser conviction and shorter sentence.
Hanson was booked into the King County Jail Friday night, eight days after the filing of a second-degree rape charge in an incident that court documents say happened February 1st-2nd in West Seattle. The case was first reported by The Seattle Times; we learned of it when a reader sent us the link, and we subsequently obtained the court documents.
Prosecutors say the 41-year-old victim and suspect “live near each other and have known each other for a long time.” They had drinks at two local bars the night of February 1st and then, it is alleged, got into a car crash that was not reported to police but resulted in the victim suffering a head injury that left her unable to speak for days. The court documents detail extensive detective work including security-camera video from multiple establishments and parking lots helping trace what happened and when. The charging documents say Hanson is seen on security-camera video groping the “apparently passed out” victim in his car, and that there “is evidence supporting that when they left that location, the defendant crashed his car and (the victim) hit the windshield of the truck, causing her serious injuries. She had visible injuries to her face.” She had no memory of what happened after agreeing to go drinking with Hanson, until waking up in his bed with the alleged rape in progress despite her inability to communicate.
Police say she walked back to her residence the morning of February 2nd, where a neighbor found her disheveled, with bloody face, hands, and clothing. The neighbor took her to a nearby clinic, where the victim was unable to communicate with health-care workers except to write her name over and over again. An ambulance was called to take her to Harborview Medical Center. The court documents say she still could not speak, except to say, “I, I, I,” when police first tried to talk with her there. A day later, they tried again, but she was unable to form sentences.
The various video clips obtained by police suggest, they say, that the crash happened sometime after 11:35 pm February 1st. Her injuries suggested she was in the center of the bench seat of Hanson’s truck at the time, but no medical attention was sought for her, nor was the crash reported. Evidence found by police suggest it likely happened near 40th SW/SW Genesee, where some neighbors recalled hearing a loud sound around 2 am February 2nd.
Though the charging documents filed March 30th say the suspect and victim lived near each other, they list a Des Moines house as Hanson’s “last known” address. He got out of prison in 2009, according to the Times report, and the charging documents say he had fourth-degree-assault convictions in 2012 and 2015. More recently, prosecutors added: “The defendant has been making numerous attempts to contact (the victim) recently and she is quite fearful of him.” The warrant issued for his arrest carried $500,000 bail, but tonight the KCJ register lists him as being held in lieu of $1 million bail, with an additional half-million dollars set for investigation of witness intimidation. We’ll be following up with prosecutors tomorrow.
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