EVERETT — An Arlington man has been charged with first-degree murder for the fatal point-blank shooting of his ex-girlfriend’s new boyfriend in downtown Everett.
Jeremiah Stringfellow, 27, was also charged with unlawful possession of a firearm in the September attack that killed Naej Belledent, 22, of Everett.
On the morning of Sept. 18, surveillance footage showed the defendant’s Lexus parked on 33rd Street, east of Rockefeller Avenue, according to a 12-page charging document. A suspect, later identified as Stringfellow, donned two green gloves.
Twelve minutes later, somebody called 911 less than two blocks away to report his brother and a woman had been shot. Police responded to the apartment in the 3200 block of Wetmore Avenue and found Belledent and a woman on a bed in the apartment. Belledent reportedly suffered four gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead at the scene. The woman was not physically injured, the charges say.
The woman and Stringfellow had previously dated for five years, prosecutors wrote. When they broke up, Stringfellow reportedly began stalking the woman and installed a GPS tracking magnet on her car.
Surveillance video taken the morning of the shooting showed the suspect fleeing Belledent’s apartment about one minute before his brother called 911, the charges say.
About two hours after the shooting, detectives reported Stringfellow’s cell phone Google search history included terms such as “Wetmore & 32nd Ave,” “harold everett,” “everettt news,” “shooting in north Everett today” and “Wetmore ave Everett wa.”
Police arrested Stringfellow Nov. 4. In an interview, he reportedly said the Lexus he was driving did not belong to him and that he did not have it the weekend of the shooting. The defendant also reported nobody else knew the password to his cell phone, the charges say.
Stringfellow was arraigned in Snohomish County Superior Court last week.
He remained in custody this week with bail set at $1,125,100. He had one prior felony conviction in Snohomish County, for forgery.
Ellen Dennis: 425-339-3486; ellen.dennis@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @reporterellen.
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