Local briefly: Former bookkeeper accused of embezzling from Everett RV dealer
Published 10:48 pm Friday, May 23, 2008
EVERETT — A former bookkeeper at an Everett recreational vehicle dealership is accused of embezzling more than $880,000.
The woman, 47, of Mukilteo, was arrested Thursday after admitting in court during a civil case that she took $240,000 from RV USA, according to court documents.
Snohomish County sheriff’s deputies have been investigating the woman since November after the business owner called police. She allegedly wrote herself checks out of the business’ account.
Edmonds man guilty in murder case
An Edmonds man was intent on murder when he slit a man’s throat and repeatedly shot at him, a Snohomish County jury decided on Friday.
Jurors found Wendell Armstead Jr., 24, guilty of first-degree attempted murder with a deadly weapon. He faces up to 28 years in prison for the 2007 attack.
The victim told investigators he’d been riding around with Armstead and the defendant’s girlfriend. He fell asleep in the backseat and woke up as Armstead was stabbing him. He escaped from the car, only to be shot at six or seven times, investigators said. A bullet hit him in the leg. He fled to a nearby house, where a neighbor summoned aid.
Armstead was under state supervision at the time of the attack. He had been convicted of rendering criminal assistance and robbery in 2004.
Snohomish: Homeless sex offender back in jail
A high-risk, homeless sex offender who was ordered to sleep under a Snohomish bridge before escaping to Arkansas was brought back to Washington on Thursday and placed behind bars.
David J. Torrence, 43, was being held at the Washington Corrections Center in Shelton, said Chad Lewis, a state Department of Corrections spokesman.
Torrence was convicted in 1995 after he grabbed a 15-year-old girl off a south Everett street, threatened to kill her, then raped her.
He was released from prison on April 20 after serving a year for failing to register as a sex offender. State officials ordered Torrence to sleep under a bridge near U.S. 2 in Snohomish, less than five miles from where the woman he raped lives.
Three days later he cut off his GPS tracking bracelet. Corrections officials issued a nationwide warrant for his arrest.
Federal agents in the Northwest sent leads to police in Arkansas that Torrence may have fled there to live with his mother.
On May 9, the man who has served multiple prison terms for failing to register as a sex offender turned himself in to the Ouachita County Sheriff’s Department in Camden, Ark.
Torrence was back in custody in Washington by 5:30 p.m. Thursday.
Marysville: Two men charged in slaying
Prosecutors on Friday charged two men with second-degree murder in the 2005 stabbing death of Charles Hughley.
Justin Trent, 26, and Matthew Hedgcoth, 21, are accused of killing Hughley inside an abandoned house. A police officer discovered Hughley’s body April 13, 2005.
Hughley, 39, sustained two dozen stab wounds and multiple other injuries, according court documents. Prosecutors believe Trent and Hedgcoth and other men lured Hughley to the house and attacked him. The attack may have been in retaliation for something Hedgcoth believed Hughley had done to him, according to court papers.
Marysville detectives continue to investigate the slaying.
Police to discuss sex offender at meeting
Marysville police have scheduled a meeting Wednesday to discuss a registered sex offender being released into the community.
Robert Michael Galovin, 59, will be registered as living in the 4900 block of 75th Place NE, according to Marysville police. Galovin was convicted of first-degree child molestation. He is a level-two offender, meaning he is at a moderate risk to reoffend.
The meeting is planned for 7 p.m. Wednesday at Pinewood Elementary School, 5115 84th Street.
Camano Island: Police seek teen escapee
Island County sheriff deputies on Friday released an updated photo of Colton Harris-Moore, the notorious teenage serial burglar who escaped from a Renton group home on April 30.
There’s been no sign of the teenager, 17, since his escape. Deputies fear he might come back to his familiar territory on Camano Island and continue his spree of breaking into vacation homes.
He’s described as approximately 6-feet, 5-inches tall and weighs more than 200 pounds.
Anyone who sees the boy is asked to call 911.
From Herald staff reports
