Just in from the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office: 43-year-old Aaron Rillera is charged with second-degree murder for allegedly beating 24-year-old Dillon Graham to death with a baseball bat. It happened Monday afternoon at an encampment on the slope between Highway 509 and Myers Way. We first reported on the investigation that afternoon, on Rillera’s arrest the next day; Graham was identified yesterday.
Court documents filed along with today’s charging papers say witnesses told police it started when a woman came to one of four encampments on the slope claiming that the victim was trying to rob another woman. The first person she approached didn’t want to get involved; he said the two women came to his encampment later and said “AJ” – later identified as Rillera – had “taken care of” Graham by hitting him. Police found Rillera and two women – one of whom was the alleged robbery target – near his encampment, described as a “large, fort-like camp” and took all three in for questioning. They also later questioned the first woman who had been seeking help. The woman that the victim allegedly was trying to rob said he had hit her and pushed her to the ground. She said she didn’t know the other woman had gone for help, but that Rillera and another man showed up with bats, and she said she didn’t see what happened because she turned away. Graham was described as an occasional visitor to the encampment, not a resident. Rillera remains jailed in lieu of $1 million bail and is expected in court to answer the charge on June 22nd.
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