No-bail warrant out for no-show

Published 11:05 pm Friday, July 6, 2007

A judge on Thursday issued a no-bail warrant for the arrest of an Arlington man who didn’t show up to court to face punishment for trashing a historic church in Silvana.

Police are on the lookout for Jayson William Jackman, 19, one of two young men who pleaded guilty to causing more than $23,000 damage to the Little White Church on the Hill, just a short distance from Peace Lutheran Church.

He was to be sentenced Thursday.

On Oct. 12, a Snohomish County sheriff’s deputy arrested Jackman and Tyler Kurtis Yarlott, also 19, of Arlington, after somebody called police complaining that vandals were smashing windows and overturning gravestones.

The little church is a place of summertime worship, weddings, funerals and other celebrations for the Peace Lutheran congregation of about 250. Many of the current congregation’s grandparents were married there, and some great-grandparents are buried in the cemetery next to the little church.

The vandals engaged in what deputy prosecutor Chris Dickinson called an “appalling act of criminal stupidity,” breaking a dozen 8-foot-tall windows, damaging frames and overturning 25 granite and marble headstones.

The church, built in 1890, was put on the state’s register of historic places in 1972. It’s used only part time by the Peace Lutheran congregation. Mainly Scandinavian settlers built it.

The two young men pleaded guilty to first-degree malicious mischief, a felony.

Yarlott was sentenced earlier to 45 days in jail with 30 days converted to community service work. He didn’t have previous felony convictions, deputy prosecutor Colleen St. Clair said. Church leaders didn’t object to some of the time being spent on community service work, she said.

In addition, Yarlott was ordered to pay at least $25,000 restitution to the church and the owners of several automobiles that also were damaged in Everett during the men’s vandalism spree, St. Clair said.

When the call came in Oct. 12, a deputy happened to be a few minutes away. Yarlott and Jackman attempted to drive off, but were blocked by the deputy’s car, court documents said.

Documents said both appeared to be drunk and they were belligerent with the officer. Yarlott was bleeding from a hand cut, which apparently happened while breaking windows. Officers found a baseball bat with embedded broken glass particles in the men’s car, documents said.

Jackman has previous convictions of theft and third-degree assault, St. Clair said. She said she had been prepared to recommend a four-month jail term for Jackman, but after his failure to show up for court, she likely will recommend more time.

Reporter Jim Haley: 425-339-3447 or haley@heraldnet.com.