Murder charge filed in Everett stabbing

Published 11:04 pm Friday, September 11, 2009

EVERETT — Near Forgotten Creek — that’s where police found the knife they believe was used to repeatedly stab Derrick Everson.

Everson, 21, may have died when he was stabbed in heart or when the butterfly knife pierced his brain. The wounds to his liver and lungs also were potentially fatal.

Everson was stabbed 25 times Aug. 20 in a wooded area near Broadway in Everett. Investigators say the attack was unprovoked.

Prosecutors allege that David Mitchell Kopp, 19, approached Everson from behind and began a brutal assault that left him begging for help.

Kopp was charged Friday with first-degree murder. He is being held in the Snohomish County Jail on $1 million bail.

Kopp allegedly described the first thrust as being based on poor judgment and paranoia, Snohomish County deputy prosecutor Matt Hunter wrote.

“The other 24 were to ‘just take his suffering’ and to ‘get rid of one more mouth to conspire against me,’” court papers said.

Evidence indicates that Kopp had planned to assault Everson, court papers said. Kopp told another acquaintance earlier that Everson was irritating him and he was going to put him on the ground, Hunter said.

Witnesses told police that Kopp, Everson and two other men had gathered to drink beer and smoke marijuana in some woods off Broadway known as Cardboard Hill, court papers said. The men hung out for a while and then decided to walk to a nearby home.

A witness said he was walking down a trail, nearing Broadway, when he heard a scream from behind him. He saw Kopp and another friend run past. The man told investigators he found Everson on the ground, bleeding from multiple wounds.

Everson was pleading for help, the man told detectives.

He ran for help and called his girlfriend. Her parents raced to the scene and found Everson dead. They called 911.

A witness told investigators that she called Kopp after the incident to ask what happened to Everson. She said Kopp repeatedly apologized for stabbing Everson, and admitted to stabbing him 20 or more times, police said.

Kopp was arrested in north Everett and later spoke with detectives.

He allegedly led police to Forgotten Creek. There he pointed out some bushes where he’d thrown the knife in an attempt to hide it, Hunter wrote.

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