Local briefly: Murder attempt worth a 27-year prison sentence

Published 10:49 pm Friday, May 30, 2008

EVERETT — An Edmonds man with a growing criminal history will spend decades in prison for an attempted murder.

“The amount of time you’re locked up — that’s almost a career,” Snohomish County Superior Court Judge Gerald Knight told the defendant Friday.

Knight sentenced Wendell Armstead Jr. to 27 years in prison for first-degree attempted murder with a deadly weapon.

Armstead, 24, was intent on murder when he slit another man’s throat and shot at him in 2007, a jury found.

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. 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 was convicted of rendering criminal assistance and robbery in 2004.

Edmonds: Police chase ends with car crash

A police chase just after midnight Friday through south Edmonds ended when a man reportedly crashed a stolen car into a traffic signal.

The man, 25, of Seattle, lost control of the car and smashed into the signal, Edmonds police Sgt. Don Anderson said.

The pursuit began when officers tried to pull the man over for a traffic violation in the 8000 block of 236th Street SW, he said.

The man took off allegedly reaching speeds of 60 mph through a residential area. The suspect crashed about a mile later at the intersection of 76th Avenue W. and 244th Street SW, Anderson said.

The man suffered minor injuries and was expected to be booked into the Snohomish County Jail for investigation of possession of stolen property and attempting to elude police.

Several lanes of 244th Street SW were closed overnight as officials cleaned up the mess.

From Herald staff reports