Charge raised to murder in fatal shooting of 6-year-old

Published 10:34 pm Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Homicide detectives say they have uncovered new evidence indicating that a Marysville man accused of fatally shooting his 6-year-old daughter intentionally pointed the gun at the girl’s head.

Richard Peters, 42, told detectives he accidentally shot his daughter Stormy in November while he was cleaning his .45-caliber Colt inside his Tulalip-area home, court papers said.

Peters, who had spent the afternoon drinking vodka and Coke, sent Stormy to his bedroom to retrieve the gun from his night stand in his bedroom, according to court papers. Peters told investigators he didn’t think the gun was loaded.

He said he pulled the trigger as he was removing the magazine from the gun, court documents said.

Stormy was shot once in the forehead. The Quil Ceda Elementary School first-grader died a few hours later at a Seattle hospital.

A recent forensic analysis of the shooting scene and a purported jailhouse statement by the defendant don’t support his version of what happened, Snohomish County deputy prosecutor Paul Stern wrote in court papers.

The new evidence demonstrates that what Peters told police is “forensically impossible or at least significantly unlikely,” Stern wrote.

Stern on Wednesday charged Peters with second-degree murder. Pointing a loaded gun at someone is second-degree assault. Because the assault led to the girl’s death, that’s murder, Stern wrote.

The trial is expected to begin next week. If convicted of murder, Peters faces more than 20 years in prison.

Peters made a brief appearance Wednesday in Superior Court. He pleaded not guilty to the murder charge and first-degree manslaughter.

Stern initially charged the Boeing machinist with manslaughter, alleging that the defendant recklessly caused Stormy’s death.

Detectives in May learned that Peters allegedly told a cell mate in the Snohomish County Jail that he pointed the gun at the girl. He said he didn’t realize the weapon was loaded, Stern wrote in charging documents.

Late last month detectives returned to Peters’ home to recreate the shooting and analyze the path of the bullet.

The room where the shooting occurred was relatively unchanged, Stern wrote.

Investigators in November had removed a patch of carpet where Stormy fell. The carpet hadn’t been repaired. Detectives also could still see where the bullet that killed Stormy had struck a wall.

They used a mannequin, adjusted precisely to Stormy’s height, to represent the girl.

Crime scene investigators used forensic lasers to trace the path of the bullet from the wall back to the mannequin and ultimately to the couch where Peters is believed to have been seated.

Stormy had been facing the gun when it was fired.

Investigators believe Peters had to have been pointing the gun directly at his daughter at the time it went off, the deputy prosecutor said. The analysis is consistent with the statement attributed to Peters by his cell mate, Stern wrote.

Two other children, ages 3 and 8, were home at the time of the shooting.

Peters’ wife told investigators that her husband has asked the children to bring guns to him a couple of times in the past. She said they are always careful to tell their children to act like there’s a bullet in the chamber, court papers said.

A neighbor told police he advised his wife not to let their daughter play at the Peters’ home because he was aware that the children were allowed to handle firearms. He was worried someone would accidentally get shot, Stern wrote.

Diana Hefley: 425-339-3463, hefley@heraldnet.com.