West Seattle, Washington
25 Thursday
At the King County Courthouse downtown, we’ve just left the courtroom of Superior Court Judge Joan DuBuque, where jury selection is now complete for the trial of Brandon Chaney and Bryce Huber, after prospective jurors went through almost two full days of questioning. Eight women and six men comprise the fourteen-juror panel (12 jurors and two alternates) who remained in the courtroom after the rest were dismissed. Huber and Chaney are on trial for the February 2009 West Seattle shooting death of 26-year-old Steve Bushaw; two others, Danny O’Neal and John Sylve, have pleaded guilty. The trial is now in recess until 9 am Monday, when prosecutor Jeff Baird and defense lawyers Tony Savage (for Huber) and Jim Roe (for Chaney) are scheduled to begin opening statements.
MONDAY MIDDAY NOTE: Opening statements haven’t started, after all – one of the jurors had to be excused from the case, and they are going through a new pool of jurors to select a replacement. That’s expected to take the rest of the day.
Three West Seattle Crime Watch notes this afternoon – two are followups from last night: First, we have finally tracked down what brought a large police response to North Admiral around 7 pm. Someone reported to police that a man with a gun was shooting at crows. It turned out to be a BB gun, according to SPD spokesperson Det. Mark Jamieson; the BB gun was taken into evidence, but there were no arrests. Also, we checked to see if the search in Arbor Heights, which related to a stolen car, had resulted in arrests; Det. Jamieson says no. Finally, a new report this afternoon – a car theft reported by Elizabeth:
Our Toyota Highlander was stolen out of our alley driveway last night. 38th and
Dakota. Just FYI for all our West Seattle neighbors.
P.S. For stats fans – SPD announced today that June crime stats have been added to its ongoing online tallies.
Two and a half years after 26-year-old Steve Bushaw was shot dead outside Talarico’s, jury selection has begun in the murder trial of the two defendants remaining in the case. In two sessions this morning, 120 prospective jurors were brought into King County Superior Court Judge Joan DuBuque‘s courtroom, and askedwhether serving on the jury for this trial would cause hardship. For those who were not excused in that round, questioning this afternoon (voir dire) will involve the defense and prosecution lawyers deciding who is acceptable to be seated.
Judge DuBuque has outlined a timetable for the case: Court will be in session Mondays through Thursdays, 9 am to 4 pm (except August 15-16, when it will be in recess), until the case goes to the jury, at which time they will also deliberate Fridays if necessary. It is projected to last three or four weeks before the jury gets the case. The defendants are alleged mastermind Bryce Huber and alleged getaway driver Brandon Chaney, both on trial for first-degree murder after prosecutors dropped the conspiracy charge; John Sylve and Danny O’Neal have already pleaded guilty to being the triggermen and are expected to testify. Earlier this week, it was agreed that opening statements would start next Monday, though that is of course dependent on how the rest of the jury selection process goes.
Three notes in West Seattle Crime Watch tonight. First, if you’re seeing police activity in Arbor Heights around 32nd and 106th, officers are searching right now for suspects who apparently fled a car that turned out to be stolen. Second, we’re still trying to track down information on an incident earlier tonight in the Admiral District that led to a brief, albeit reportedly sizable, response (will add whatever we find out). Third – two people e-mailed on behalf of neighbors who sadly can’t do it themselves because burglars stole their computer equipment. The break-in happened today near 44th/Cambridge, and one of the neighbors reports:
Burglars hit during the day, broke down the front door, stole computers, including a brand new Apple desktop computer just out of the box, and a Rolex. Left everything else. A burgundy car was seen yesterday, parked just down the hill, with a man inside it watching the neighborhood for quite awhile.
One week from tonight – on Tuesday, August 2nd – it’s Night Out, the annual nationwide celebration of neighbors banding together to fight crime. If you want to close your (non-arterial) street for a block party, hurry! Other neighborhoods have already done it – like the lively people of Pigeon Point, whose official signpost invitation to neighbors is up (artwork by Jim Sander, photo courtesy Pete Spalding). The registration link is on this Seattle Police Department infopage. And if you wouldn’t mind us stopping by your party for a pic, please e-mail us the location and who to ask for!
Meantime, if you use Twitter, and follow the feed for Seattle Police, you were probably startled this morning (we were!) to suddenly see their feed changed into an information stream with single-line messages about calls officers were handling around the city. (Usually, the SPD Twitter feed only has a few messages a day, mostly links to updates on their SPD Blotter site of selected incident summaries.) At a mid-morning briefing about Night Out, they explained they’re doing a “tweet-a-thon” today, 6 am to 6 pm, highlighting incidents that the public tipped them about. Media Response Unit leader Sgt. Sean Whitcomb explains it here.
P.S. Before Night Out gets here – make sure your Block Watch is linked up with the West Seattle Blockwatch Captains Network! You can find them on the Web, on Facebook, and this Thursday night, info-tabling at the West Seattle Candidates’ Forum (6:30-9 pm at South Seattle Community College‘s Brockey Center – updated details coming up later this afternoon).
We’re at the King County Courthouse, where jury selection was supposed to start right about now for the two remaining defendants on trial for the murder of Steve Bushaw two and a half years ago, after a week of final pre-trial motions and discussion. But jury selection has just been delayed till Wednesday because of a tangled set of circumstances that made it safer, for the case’s chances of surviving any later challenges, to wait for a new pool of jurors to arrive at the courthouse. Key among the challenges today, the fact that some members of today’s overall courthouse jury pool, while waiting to go into another courtroom, might have seen deputies bringing cuffed defendants Brandon Chaney and Bryce Huber down the hall, a sight that might prejudice them if they were then “recycled” into this jury pool. So Wednesday morning at 9:15, everyone will reconvene. Prosecutor Jeff Baird proposed opening statements then be set for next Monday morning, and no one objected.
(Memorial in Roxhill Park paying tribute to murder victim Bernard Martin, September 2010)
The 22-year-old man jailed for beating another man to death in Roxhill Park last September has pleaded guilty. We discovered this on a routine check of court records this weekend. Chatri Thip was charged with killing 40-year-old Bernard Martin by jumping onto him and smashing a shopping cart against him. This past week in King County Superior Court, Thip pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, the original charge against him. His written statement blames an “aggression-laden environment” at the park the night it happened, starting, he claimed, after a group upset he had gotten his girlfriend pregnant – including her half-brothers – attacked him. The murder victim was not part of that attack, Thip wrote. The original charging documents had said Thip had six beers that night – stolen from the nearby Safeway – and told police he experiences rage when he drinks, and lashed out when Martin came up to him in the park and asked for a beer. Court documents indicate prosecutors will recommend the lower end of the standard sentencing range, 11 years and 2 months in prison (the high end is just under 20 years). Thip is scheduled to be sentenced by Judge Susan Craighead at 1 pm September 23rd.
Out of the WSB inbox today, from Jason:
Our house near 36th and Barton was burglarized during the day on 7/21. The front door was kicked in and several items were stolen. Please let others know so they can keep an eye out for suspicious activity In their neighborhoods.
Police say door-kicking is a common method of break-in; here’s their advice on burglary prevention.
By Megan Sheppard
On the WSBeat, for West Seattle Blog
From reports on cases handled recently by Southwest Precinct officers:
*On Monday just before 6 pm, a drive-thru teller was able to stall for time when a customer tried to cash a $5,000 check with a suspicious signature. She called the man who had supposedly written the check, and when he denied having done so, other bank employees called 911. An officer arrived and pulled in behind the suspect’s car. The suspect was ordered to turn off the ignition and drop the car keys to the ground. He did so, but while the officer was running a computer check, the engine started up and the car squealed out of the bank lot, nearly hitting a pedestrian. Continuing eastbound, the driver swerved into oncoming traffic and ran a red light, just missing additional pedestrians. Because a chase would have posed additional dangers, the officers opted to not pursue the fleeing car. But citizens later noticed a suspicious car in front of an abandoned house in the 5600 block of 31st SW. Officers identified it as the suspect’s vehicle. Behind the residence? A pile that included ID cards for more than 15 victims, stolen checks, washed checks, cell phone chip cards, a laptop computer, and a loaded Springfield Arms 9mm handgun stolen in a car prowl in north Seattle earlier in the month. The car and all of the property was placed into the evidence room. The suspects remain at large.
8 more summaries after the jump, including two cases of bullet casings found in local streets, and two updates on crimes previously covered on WSB:Read More
6:14 PM: Police are investigating a stabbing at 14th and Henderson in Highland Park. The victim is male and being rushed to the hospital now. More as we get it.
6:34 PM UPDATE: This happened at an apartment building; while we wait to talk to the lieutenant who’s on scene, scanner communication describes it as a domestic-violence incident, with the suspect(s) possibly in a brown Ford Bronco with tinted windows and spinner-style rims, headed north. While few crime scenes are “calm,” this one seems particularly tense, with more than a few of the people outside the building expressing themselves loudly and emotionally.
(Photo by Christopher Boffoli for WSB)
7:15 PM UPDATE: At the scene, Lt. Ron Smith tells us it’s still too soon to say exactly what happened, as different people are telling them different stories. One person who he says may or may not be a suspect has voluntarily turned himself in. They have found what may be the weapons that is used, but they’re still searching, to be sure.
From Jason, via Facebook:
Our Honda Accord (white – yr 96) was stolen last night from the corner of 18th & Kenyon. Police came by to make a report and said there has been a rash of Honda thefts in the area…kids taking them for joyrides and then dumping the cars up north or else where. Police recommended, especially if you have a Honda, to get a club for the steering wheel !……
Here’s other police advice for how to try to prevent car theft.
Thanks to Pat for the photo taken in Westwood, 8600 block of 31st SW, where neighbors wondered what brought out so many Seattle Police cars as well as King County Sheriff’s Office deputies. SPD told us it was a KCSO case; sheriff’s spokesperson Sgt. John Urquhart says they were trying to arrest someone on a county warrant for second-degree assault: “He didn’t want to come out so we talked to him for a while and then went in and got him.”
Today (Wednesday) will be Day 3 of pre-jury-selection motions and other business in the murder trial of Bryce Huber and Brandon Chaney, two of the four men charged in the February 2009 West Seattle shooting death of Steve Bushaw. (The other two have pleaded guilty and are expected to testify.) Tuesday brought about two hours of courtroom activity. Big headline: Jury selection isn’t likely to start before Monday – among other things, all sides agreed that a new group of jurors is more likely to yield people who can stay through a trial that will last weeks rather than days. Superior Court Judge Joan DuBuque is asking for a pool of more than 60. Otherwise, evidence and motions were discussed on Tuesday afternoon, including cell-phone records for defendants and witnesses. Observed Huber’s lawyer Anthony Savage, “We have a three-page document here that’ll strike you blind if you try to read it.” Prosecutor Jeff Baird came with a sheaf of charts that apparently show timelines with arrows, horizontal lines, and photos, to help visualize the cell-phone trail. Then came the discussion of what evidence will be admissible – for example, the home-invasion robbery that is alleged to be the reason why Huber allegedly wanted Bushaw dead, and the marijuana dealing in which both were allegedly involved. Said prosecutor Baird: “I think everyone knows by now that marijuana is in a state of quasi-legality in Seattle, and other parts of the country, and does not rise to the level of crimes that require close police attention. I don’t think anyone would hold it against Mr. Huber or for that matter Mr. Bushaw that they happened to buy marijuana and sell it on a small scale to their acquaintances.” Proceedings are scheduled to resume at 9 this morning.
No word of any arrests yet, but the police report “narrative” from the Saturday night North Admiral stabbings is available online. Many details are redacted in the online copy – not just names but some places – which we are denoting below with asterisks. Read on:Read More
Only two weeks till this year’s Night Out Against Crime, Tuesday, August 2nd. Still time to register your block party so you can close the street, providing it’s not an arterial. Here’s where to sign up.. You can also check out the Night Out page on Facebook – find it here. And if you wouldn’t mind us stopping by your party as we travel around that night trying to get to as many as possible, please send us the address (here’s how to reach us) before party night, and let us know who to ask for! Also note the city is inviting people to map their parties by adding them to a calendar – this is the first time ever for that – once you’re in the calendar, there’s a map on the city Night Out page showing locations that have been added!
7:19 PM: Thanks to those who tipped us (206-293-6302, voice or text any time) about a big police presence at the Super 24 on Delridge within the past hour. Police at the scene tell us there was a report of a road-rage incident, involving someone waving or pointing a gun out of a car. They pulled over the suspect; no injuries reported.
ADDED 12:19 AM: Here are more details in a summary published on SPD Blotter:
On July 19th, just after 4:30 PM, a 29 year old male suspect was involved in a traffic dispute with another driver. Both vehicles had just exited the West Seattle Bridge onto Delridge. The suspect raised a semi-auto handgun and pointed it at the victim. The victim fled and called 911. Officers responded but the suspect vehicle had left the area.
Just before 6:00 PM, an officer from the Southwest Precinct located the suspect vehicle, a black 1997 Mercedes Benz, at a gas station in the 5400 Block of Delridge Way SW, occupied by two males and a female. The occupants of the vehicle were taken into custody without incident. The suspect admitted to officers that there was a handgun in the driver’s door compartment and gave officers consent to search the vehicle. Officers recovered the 9mm pistol, a loaded magazine, and a box of ammunition. The 29 year old suspect was arrested and booked into the King County Jail for Investigation of Harassment. The other occupants were identified and released.
Charges have just been filed against the man who police thought was inside a Delridge home last Friday morning, leading to hours of SWAT-team presence that all traced back to an incident at Camp Long on Thursday night. 
20-year-old Jory Lee Preston is charged with two counts of domestic-violence assault, one 2nd degree and one 4th degree. The charging documents refer to two incidents: First, the Thursday night incident in which he allegedly pointed a gun at his 17-year-old ex-girlfriend; and also, the previous Monday (July 11th), Preston is accused of “confront(ing) the victim at a park in West Seattle, angry with her that she was hanging out with other guys. He grabbed her and attempted to force her into his vehicle and threatened to push her in front of a moving vehicle.” He had been held on $100,000 bail, but prosecutors are asking to have that raised to $250,000, saying in the documents, “The gun in the July 14, 2011, incident was not recovered, but when the SWAT Team made entrance into his residence they recovered a rifle, a loaded revolver and a shotgun and shotgun ammunition, and a large knife. In February 2011, the Seattle Police Department responded to a 911 report that the defendant had threatened to kill his step-father. According to the police report, when police responded to the scene, they took the defendant into custody and … recovered several firearms from his bedroom.” The probable-cause section of the charging documents, based on the police report, say that Preston and the victim broke up last March, and say that the July 11th incident happened at Me-Kwa-Mooks on Beach Drive, but was not reported to SPD until that afternoon. The charging documents also include an extensive account of how police say events unfolded at Camp Long and then during the SWAT presence at Preston’s Delridge residence; we will add that to this report a bit later – there are a lot of witness and victim names to excise. (Friday photo courtesy of Amanda)
ADDED 10:26 AM: The transcript of the “probable cause” narrative by police – we transcribed it from the documents that accompanied the charges filed yesterday, as they were not in a “cut-and-paste”-enabled format. Names aside from the charged person have been excised, as have addresses, license plate numbers and other identifying information. This begins with the Camp Long incident and carries through the overnight SWAT standoff, quoting those who were inside the house as saying they didn’t open up because they thought police would “go away”:Read More
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
This afternoon at the King County Courthouse, pre-testimony proceedings in the trial of Brandon Chaney and Bryce Huber are scheduled to resume.
Huber (left) and Chaney (right), are two of the four men who were charged with gunning down 26-year-old Steve Bushaw along California north of Edmunds in The Junction on Super Bowl night in 2009. The other two, Danny O’Neal and John Sylve, already have pleaded guilty. As mentioned earlier, we were in court as proceedings began Monday afternoon.
Toplines: The case has a new prosecutor, Jeff Baird, because the one originally assigned to the case, James Konat – who won the case against South Park killer/rapist Isaiah Kalebu earlier this summer – was taken off it amid a controversy over racist remarks he made in an unrelated case in which a conviction was overturned as a result. Baird gained fame last decade for leading the Green River Killer prosecution team. His first major announcement in this case: Seeking to drop the “conspiracy to commit murder” charge against Chaney and Huber.
Chaney’s lawyer James Rowe didn’t object, so his client now is on trial for one charge – 1st-degree murder with firearm enhancement – but Huber’s lawyer Anthony Savage did object, saying the alleged conspiracy was going to figure into his defense, and dropping the charge “disarms” him of a contention he planned to pursue. Judge Joan DuBuque gave Savage until first thing this morning to cite case law to support his argument against dropping the conspiracy charge.
She also suggested the defense lawyers would want to read the trial brief that Baird had turned in – hinting that it would raise a number of issues that might take days to hash out – and when court reconvenes today, everyone will have “a better sense of what there is to argue about.”
All that means this may not get to jury selection for a while.
The trial originally was set to start in January – then suddenly, Sylve and O’Neal pleaded guilty, and that led to delays. It was pushed further back when Konat was still on the case, so as not to conflict with the South Park murder/rapes trial. Even Judge DuBuque acknowledged yesterday, “This [Bushaw murder] case has been proceeding in a piecemeal fashion.”
It’s also a complicated case – and as noted again in court yesterday, evidence will include a copious amount of cell-phone records – with the general allegation that Bushaw was killed because Huber believed he had been involved in a home-invasion robbery; Sylve and O’Neal allegedly were the triggermen, and Chaney the getaway driver.
(Photo credit: January 2011, by Christopher Boffoli for WSB)
STEVE BUSHAW MURDER TRIAL BEGINS: We’re at the King County Courthouse courtroom of Superior Court Judge Joan DuBuque, where the rescheduled murder trial is starting this afternoon for the two remaining defendants in the February 2009 Junction shooting death of 26-year-old Steve Bushaw (two have already pleaded guilty). A jury has to be chosen before testimony can begin; right now, various motions are being brought up, including the prosecution’s proposal to drop the “conspiracy to commit murder” charge and leave the two defendants, Brandon Chaney and Bryce Huber, charged with first-degree murder/firearm enhancement. We’ll have a separate report on today’s proceedings later. (2:42 pm note – court has already recessed for the day.)
GATEWOOD ARSON: John C. Siegel, charged with arson and domestic violence in the June 28th fire at the Gatewood home he owned with his ex-wife, is scheduled to return to court tomorrow for a case-setting hearing, after pleading guilty last week. He remains in jail, status listed as “bail denied” (though a $1 million bail amount remains on the books for the arson charge).
FAIRMOUNT SPRINGS BURGLARY/ASSAULT: Monty Richardson, arrested two weeks ago and charged with breaking into a neighbor’s house and attacking her, was in court last week to answer the burglary, assault, and unlawful-imprisonment charges against him. He pleaded not guilty and remains in jail, with his bail still $250,000, due back in court for a case-setting hearing on July 25th.
STOLEN CAR/CAR-THEFT-TOOLS CASE: Repeat offender Skyelar Hailey remains in the Regional Justice Center jail in Kent, with bail set at $65,000, in a possession-of-stolen-vehicle/vehicle-theft-tools case we detailed here last month. He too was in court last week to plead guilty, and has a case-setting hearing set this Wednesday.
No arrests yet in connection with the stabbing of two men Saturday night near Hamilton Viewpoint Park in North Admiral (original WSB coverage here). But friends of the victims say the initial police report at the scene – that the men were believed to be transients living in the park – is wrong, that the two men are Admiral residents who were “out for a walk.” Bob identified them in this comment as 25-year-old Zach and 52-year-old Glen. We don’t know their conditions, and there is no new official police information regarding the circumstances; that, we hope to get tomorrow. But to another point that has come up in the comments following last night’s coverage, “officers do check Hamilton Viewpoint regularly,” according to Southwest Precinct Lt. Alan Williams, who says computer logs show “an officer who works the district had logged out to the park and checked it an hour before this incident happened … The officer would have been very visible to anyone who was actually in the park.” One last point: The incident, he says, happened before the park’s 11:30 closing time – it was reported to SPD at 11:28, a few minutes after it happened (the Fire Department’s online log shows medics dispatched at 11:31).
(WSB photos by Christopher Boffoli; this one substituted at 1:06 am for original same-angle cameraphone photo)
11:36 PM: Police and fire are rushing to California/Donald in North Admiral (map), in the Hamilton Viewpoint Park area. The report is of two people stabbed, both male, one about 30, one about 50. Both are being rushed to Harborview Medical Center. There’s no suspect description but they might be on foot, according to the scanner. We have crews on the way to the scene.
11:48 PM UPDATE: WSB’s Christopher Boffoli has just arrived. Adding his cameraphone photo of the two medic units, M-32 and M-10, that are taking the stabbing victims to Harborview. Also note that the north end of California SW is blocked off starting at SW Atlantic.
11:58 PM UPDATE: Witnesses tell Christopher that they heard a commotion in the park and saw a group of people walking up California – the stabbing, he was told, happened midway up the block, outside the park, between SW Donald and SW Atlantic. The two medic units are now about to leave for the hospital.
12:16 AM UPDATE: Police tell Christopher at the scene that this is what they are learning so far: They believe the victims are transients who reside in Hamilton Viewpoint Park. They were confronted by a group of as many as 8 people, described as Hispanic men and women. An argument erupted into violence. One of the transients did not initially realize he had been stabbed. One of the victims (apparently the younger one) is in critical condition. Police have not found any weapons yet, nor do they have additional leads yet.
12:28 AM UPDATE: California has reopened to traffic, reports Christopher, but the west side of the street is “cordoned off.” He has been told one victim was stabbed in the side, the other in upper back/shoulder area.
(8:23 PM TOPLINE: 1 man shot, not life-threatening, no arrests so far, new details just added from police)
5:24 PM: We’re at SW 97th and 33rd SW in Arbor Heights (map), where a shooting was reported in the 9700 block of 33rd a short time ago. Police are said to be looking for a male suspect who got away in a red vehicle – update, a maroon Bronco. Officers are searching for evidence and talking to possible witnesses.
They believe the victim and suspect may know each other. Scanner traffic indicates the victim was shot once, 40-caliber bullet, through the hip area.
ADDED 5:56 PM: Gang unit detectives are here, though that doesn’t always mean gang activity is suspected – and some of them already have left. Lt. Von Levandowski from the Southwest Precinct has just provided more information: The victim is a man, shot while standing on the sidewalk, with shots fired by somebody in a vehicle. They now think three people were in that vehicle, which they describe as a maroon SUV (not necessarily a Bronco). Investigators have been combing the block for shell casings, trying to determine exactly which direction the shot was fired from.
6:26 PM: Nothing new. SPD media-response Det. Mark Jamieson is expected to brief media at the scene shortly.
7:06 PM: Det. Jamieson was diverted elsewhere before arriving, but via Twitter, reports that the victim and suspect did know each other, that the victim’s injury is not life-threatening, and that “gang detectives are investigating.”
8:23 PM: New information from police via SPD Blotter:
On July 16th, at about 5:10 PM, Southwest Precinct officers responded to the 9700 Block of 33 Avenue Southwest on a report of a shooting. An adult male who had apparently befriended the suspects the night before, met the suspects, described as two black men and a white female, outside of a residence where he was planning on purchasing some items from one of the suspects. As the victim reached for his wallet, one of the suspects pulled out a gun. There was a struggle over the weapon, and the victim was shot once in the buttocks. The suspects fled in a maroon Ford Bronco. Police and Seattle Fire responded to the scene and SFD transported the victim to Harborview Medical Center. The injury is not considered life-threatening.
Gang detectives also responded and are following up on potential leads. This remains an active and ongoing investigation.
Out of the WSB inbox from Kate, an expectant mom who is about to deliver:
I just wanted people to know that our car was stolen out of our alley driveway either late last night or early this morning (in the 5400 block of 35th Ave SW). The car was recovered after having been driven up onto someone’s yard (crashing into a picket fence of one house and ending up in the front yard of another) about a mile and a half from our house. The car was found on Holden near 37th Ave SW. The damage to the car is fairly minor, but the timing is horrible and the one major thing missing from the car is something that we could certainly use.
My husband and I had just gotten back from the hospital last night where I went into early labor. They sent me home to labor further and rest and the car was stolen while we were asleep. Though we are happy to have the car back (since we are getting ready to go back to the hospital), we are now without our infant car seat which, for some reason, was the one major thing they took out of the car. Without revealing too many details (the cops are pretty sure they know who did it and are tracking them down), we don’t know if they took the car seat to sell or use, or if they got rid of it because it cramped their style. If that is the case and anyone finds a Keyfit30 infant car seat with 3 dangling toys hanging from the canopy, we’d love to have it back . . . Preferably soon, since I am now a week past my due date.
Clearly this is also a reminder to keep valuables out of cars-even if you think you need them at any moment . . . They took the seat and the base, however, which seems to have required some amount of maneuvering on their part.
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