WEST SEATTLE CRIME WATCH: Charges filed in three cases

The King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office has filed charges in three West Seattle cases of note:

THE CASE OF THE SLEEPING STOLEN-TRUCK SUSPECT: 24-year-old Hunter L. Boyce is charged with felony stolen-vehicle possession in a case we previously noted here – the theft of a landscaper’s work truck off West Marginal Way. Its owner reported the pickup was taken while he was out of town June 24-26. On June 29th, police found it in a North Seattle QFC parking lot, known to police as an area with what the charging papers describe as “high crime, including stolen vehicles.” They discovered three men sleeping inside. Boyce was asleep in the driver’s seat. The charging documents say he acknowledged knowing the truck was stolen but claimed somebody else had stolen it, a man he said he had gone to the lot to meet to get drugs. One of the other two men had an unrelated warrant and was arrested for that; the third, who was described as having a lot of personal property with him including “two pet mice,” was let go. Boyce remains in the King County Jail; he’s also being held for failing to appear in a separate burglary case.

ANOTHER ASLEEP-IN-A-CAR CASE: 45-year-old Kalin W. Laing is charged with unlawful gun possession after an arrest that started with him being found asleep in a car. In this case, it was a white 1999 BMW parked with both doors open and no plates, in an apartment building lot near 47th/Charlestown on June 22nd. Police found that the car had not been reported stolen but its title had been canceled. Laing, the charging documents say, had difficulty explaining whose car it was, but said he was at the building to visit someone he knew. Police discovered a gun and also found that he was a convicted felon, so that’s what led to his arrest and the charge. Laing, who lives in Port Orchard, remains in jail, bail set at $2,700.

THE CASE OF THE 3-MONTH-LONG BURGLARY: Sometimes charges aren’t immediate. This is one of those cases. The KCPAO charged 49-year-old Justin K. Dumas in June with second-degree burglary for a case in which he was arrested in April. He is accused of living in an apartment in Arrowhead Gardens, a senior complex in southeast West Seattle, without authorization, even changing the locks so management couldn’t get in. They had called police after discovering they were unable to enter an apartment that had been the subject of noise complaints for a month, even though it had supposedly been without a tenant for five months. Management gave officers permission to forcibly enter, and that’s when they found Dumas lying on a bed. Not only was he not authorized to be there, he was also too young to live in the complex anyway, according to the charging documents. Jail records show he spent five days in jail at the time of his initial arrest in April but is not currently in custody.

14 Replies to "WEST SEATTLE CRIME WATCH: Charges filed in three cases"

  • Jim July 7, 2022 (6:23 pm)

    $2,700 bail for a felon illegally in possession of a firearm. Yet we say we take gun crime seriously 

    • !ichele July 8, 2022 (7:40 pm)

      Exactly 

  • UselessPoliticians July 7, 2022 (6:45 pm)

    $2700 bail?  You want to tackle gun crimes how about start with the ones you catch for illegal possession.  Prosecute and give the max penalty every time.  Hopefully someday we will focus on making the punishment for any crime committed with a gun carry a mandatory jail sentence for like 5 or even 10 years.  Of course that would hinge on prosecutors prosecute and judges not making deals.

    • WSDUDEMAN July 7, 2022 (11:32 pm)

      No doubt…unreal the bail is so low. They need to throw the proverbial book at people like this. We live near this place on Charlestown. We’ve had multiple shootings here in the past year, I’ve personally witnessed people smoking crack in their cars (without plates) in broad daylight, I’ve photographed different people repeatedly passed out in different cars with needles and other paraphernalia on their laps, I’ve witnessed and videotaped multiple ‘deals’ happening between upstanding citizens driving damaged vehicles (also miraculously without any plates or registration.) Sometimes the cops show up when we call, sometimes they don’t. I sure hope one of those bullets doesn’t strike an innocent child on our block this Summer. I also hope one upstanding citizen leaving this apartment under the influence doesn’t crash their car (without plates) into someone on their way home.

  • Insertname July 7, 2022 (7:04 pm)

    Jeez. These criminals just keep on winning. Though I do find some of these cases almost comical. It’s time to enact the Code of Hammurabi; nothing else seems to be working.  

    • 1994 July 7, 2022 (9:23 pm)

      Interesting idea, thanks for sharing!

    • Neighbor July 8, 2022 (1:08 pm)

      I looked it up on Wikipedia.  I hope you are kidding, the punishments seems severe and barbaric.  What was the ancient Babylonian legal system?  Did they have a presumption of innocence?

    • Michelle July 8, 2022 (7:41 pm)

      Soo true

  • SeattleCrimeForecast July 7, 2022 (8:29 pm)

    Unfortunately these recent crimes have been keeping West Seattle in the top of our list in the crime prediction model this month especially for property crimes. Going to be a long summer at this rate…

    • Neighbor July 8, 2022 (1:19 pm)

      Well that’s the problem with extrapolating from historical trends isn’t it?  Sounds like you are saying your prediction is just a proxy for historical data, which it is.  Do you ever review this to see how accurate your predictions are?  Or are you just adding a layer of obfuscation on top of real numbers?

  • Cogburn July 8, 2022 (8:21 am)

    They won’t stop committing crimes until they are made to stop. Low bail and no consequences are not motivators to stop. 

    • WSDUDEMAN July 8, 2022 (11:10 am)

      Convicted felon in possession of an illegal firearm…$2700 bail. Roughly $270 to him to go free. 😳😂😂 What a joke.

      • EJ July 8, 2022 (1:47 pm)

        And let’s not forget the “Community Bail Fund” that doesn’t even look at the pending charges when bailing someone out. Seems like this person would be a prime candidate for them to step in and post his bail. 

  • Scubafrog July 9, 2022 (1:07 am)

    I think the left is too focused on rehabilitation.  Being honest, prison’s punishment, not rehabilitation – and the justice system LIES when it terms it ‘rehabilitation’.  If it rehabilitated, why do the majority of convicts reoffend? An attempt to rehabilite should exist in prison.  And violent criminals should go to prison.  But rehabilitation in lieu of prison should never be an answer for violent felons.  Or repeat offenders.  Seattle’s soft on crime.  The  naive notion of “rehabilitation” by way of no bail, low bail, no sentences and short sentences, ends up with law-abiding citizens being Victimised over-and-over by criminals.  And now, we don’t even have a viable police force to fight crime.  $2700 bail for a known felon, on a firearms offence is a disgrace.  But a disgrace we know well in Seattle, because we elect officials and judges who’re weak on crime.

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