EVERETT — A convicted felon was ordered never to have contact with the good Samaritan whom he robbed at gunpoint two years ago.
Snohomish County Superior Court Judge George Appel last week sentenced Firas Al-Zayady to just over six years in prison. The Everett man pleaded guilty in June to first-degree robbery. Prosecutors agreed to drop the firearm enhancement after problems arose with a key witness.
Al-Zayady faced up to 8?½ years in prison under state sentencing guidelines.
Appel ordered the man to undergo a drug and alcohol evaluation. A witness told police that Al-Zayady appeared “dope sick” the morning of the robbery and had been looking for heroin.
The victim, 61, was warming up his pickup truck before work in 2014 when Al-Zayady approached him and asked for a ride to Marysville. He told the man his father was sick.
The victim agreed to give the defendant a ride. Part way through the trip, Al-Zayady pointed a gun at the man’s head. The victim saw a flash and heard a loud popping noise. Al-Zayady had fired through the windshield.
He ordered the man to stop the truck near Ebey Slough on Highway 529. Al-Zayady demanded money and called the man a liar when he said he only had $10. The man was able to run off when Al-Zayady was reached for the victim’s lunch bag. The defendant drove off in the pickup. Police found the truck in front of a Marysville apartment building. The gun was not located.
A woman, who lived in the complex, later told police she drove the defendant to a place where he could buy drugs.
Heroin use across the country has more than doubled in the last decade, according to a recent report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Experts attribute the rise to people switching from prescription painkillers to heroin, which is cheaper and easier to get.
Heroin overdose deaths also have spiked in the last decade. In Snohomish County, the jail’s medical unit is primarily filled with people who are withdrawing from heroin. Roughly 70 percent of those admitted to Evergreen Manor, the county’s only publicly-funded detox facility, report that heroin is their drug of choice.
Diana Hefley: 425-339-3463; hefley@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @dianahefley.
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