Man pleads guilty in Lynnwood slaying
Published 10:00 pm Monday, December 15, 2008
LYNNWOOD — He and another man planned to rob Dennis Brockman of everything they could.
Adam Ulanowski, 31, admitted Monday that he kept looting Brockman’s mobile home even as the Lynnwood man was being brutally beaten and choked.
He didn’t do anything to stop the attack and when it was all over, Ulanowski divided up the dead man’s possessions and traded his share for methamphetamine.
Ulanowski pleaded guilty Monday in Snohomish County Superior Court to conspiracy to commit second-degree murder in the 2006 slaying. He admitted there is evidence to support a first-degree murder conviction against him.
The prosecutor’s office agreed to reduce the charge in the interest of the ongoing investigation against the co-defendant Carl Mattos, Snohomish County deputy prosecutor Bonnie Tweten said.
Ulanowski has told investigators Mattos, 48, was the one who attacked and killed Brockman.
He said Mattos told him he killed Brockman out of revenge. Brockman snitched on Mattos a couple of years ago during a federal investigation into illegal gun sales. Mattos spent several months in a federal lockup.
Prosecutors charged Mattos with murder but the charge was later dropped when genetic testing failed to link him to the homicide.
Ulanowski allegedly said Mattos was wearing tennis shoes when he repeatedly kicked Brockman in the head. He told them where to find the bloody shoes, according to court documents.
Investigators found a shoe in a ditch in February and sent it to the state crime lab. Scientists were unable to extract any identifiable DNA from the tennis shoe, court papers said.
Mattos was freed from jail in September.
The charge against him was dismissed in a way that would allow prosecutors to charge him in the future if evidence leads them to that decision, Tweten said.
Ulanowski faces more than 13 years in prison. He is scheduled to be sentenced in June.
Detectives linked Ulanowski to Brockman’s death by tracking the stolen property, court papers said. Everett police found an abandoned car full of checks, credit cards and documents. Some of the property belonged to Brockman.
Snohomish County sheriff’s detectives lifted a fingerprint off one of the documents and traced the print back to a woman. She told investigators she got the documents from Ulanowski, who traded them for drugs, court papers said.
Brockman’s body was found Aug. 7, 2006, inside his mobile home.
He was a known drug dealer who kept large amounts of cash in his house, court records show. He also was a partner in a pawnshop and often had jewelry, watches and tools at home.
Reporter Diana Hefley: 425-339-3463 or hefley@heraldnet.com.
