AUBURN — Bail of $1 million was set Thursday for the man suspected of the beating death of Auburn attorney William Messer.
King County District Judge Linda Thompson said there was enough cause to hold Dennis Ray Craft, 42, for first-degree murder.
Craft, who was arrested Wednesday but has not yet been formally charged with the crime, shuffled into the courtroom wearing an orange jail jumpsuit and sandals. Chained at his wrists and ankles, he said nothing during the 15-minute hearing.
The judge’s decision allows police to hold Craft while they complete their investigation. Thompson gave the King County prosecutor until close of business on Monday to file charges.
King County Journal
Ellensburg: Police jail
kidnapping suspect
A 52-year-old Cheney man was arrested in connection with the kidnapping of an 11-month-old Ellensburg boy late in March.
Marvin Walker was arrested for second-degree kidnapping earlier this week. He is being held in the Kittitas County Corrections Center on $50,000 bail.
Ellensburg Police Department Capt. Ross Green said Walker was picked up on a warrant issued by the Kittitas County Prosecutor’s Office. Walker originally was cooperative with police and reportedly gave information on the whereabouts of young Larry Thornblade.
Daily Record
Bellevue: Thief takes diamond, leaves fake
Bellevue police say a thief who took a 1.5-carat loose diamond Monday morning and replaced it with a zirconium imitation diamond at Friedlander’s Jewelers at Bellevue Square mall was copying two recent thefts at Zales stores in Bellevue and Tukwila. The replacement value in the latest switch was $13,310, said police spokesman Michael Chiu. He said the suspect in the Monday theft was an Asian woman in her 40s. In the two thefts at Zales stores in late March, the suspects were described as black men in their early 20s.
King County Journal
Port Orchard: Woman caught with fake name
A woman who gave police her sister’s name to avoid being taken in for an arrest warrant got an unpleasant surprise Wednesday morning. It turned out the 45-year-old south Kitsap County woman didn’t have a warrant out for her arrest — but her sister did. Port Orchard police and sheriff’s deputies went to a home in the 4600 block of Oakhurst Lane on Wednesday morning to check out a call about suspected stolen property. They took the woman, thinking she was her sister, and a 26-year-old south Kitsap man to jail for arrest warrants. When the woman was being booked into jail, a corrections officer recognized her and blew her cover. Had she given her correct name, she wouldn’t have ended up in jail, officers said.
The Sun
Oregon: Chihuly art stolen from gallery
A hand-blown glass sculpture valued at $50,000 was stolen from the Mockingbird Art Gallery this week, the third piece to vanish from the Bend gallery since November. The Dale Chihuly artwork, titled "Moccasin Brown Desert Basket Set With Turquoise Blue Lip Wrap," disappeared from the gallery during the gallery’s normal business hours on Monday, according to a Bend Police Department incident report. Pamela Claflin, owner of the Mockingbird Gallery, told police an unknown suspect stole the artwork. Claflin declined to comment on the case.
Associated Press
Military families
get help with bills
The Harrisburg City Council passed an ordinance that cuts in half the water and sewer bills of any household with a soldier away on active duty. City officials had no idea how many active-duty military families were among Harrisburg’s 3,000 residents. It turns out, not many. Only two families have signed up to claim the benefit, and the expense isn’t huge. One of the families, for example, received a $34 discount on its $68 bill last month.
Associated Press
Vancouver: Freed
sex offender sought
The Clark County Sheriff’s Office issued an arrest warrant for a serial sex offender three days after he was released from a California prison, alleging that he provided a fake address when he applied for a Washington state driver’s license. The warrant was issued Thursday after sheriff’s officials went to the Vancouver address Edward Harvey Stokes gave when he applied for a driver’s license on April 10. A woman at the home told officers she had no knowledge of Stokes. Stokes, 49, was released from an Orange County prison on April 7 after an appeals court overturned his conviction for drugging and sexually assaulting a 16-year-old runaway he met in Seattle.
Associated Press
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