An Everett police officer now is accused of intentionally taking the life of a drunken Stanwood man who refused to obey the officer’s commands.
Snohomish County prosecutors on Thursday charged Troy Meade with second-degree murder in the 2009 death of Niles Meservey.
The murder allegation was added to the first-degree manslaughter charge that prosecutors filed last fall against Meade.
Meade, an 11-year veteran with the department, is accused of opening fire June 10 during a confrontation with an intoxicated and belligerent Meservey.
Prosecutors allege Meade committed a crime when he fired eight shots into the back of Meservey’s Chevrolet Corvette. Meservey, 51, was struck seven times by the officer’s bullets.
Meade, 41, plans to argue that he feared for his life and had no choice but to shoot.
“Officer Meade was placed in a very dangerous situation. If he hadn’t defended himself, he may have been killed or injured,” his attorney David Allen said.
A second officer who witnessed the shooting told investigators that he didn’t believe Meade or anyone else was in immediate danger.
Meade was in court Thursday as attorneys hashed out what evidence a jury should be allowed to hear in the case.
About a dozen Everett police officers also attended the hearing. None was in uniform. They shook hands with Meade and offered support to his family. He’s been on paid administrative leave since being charged.
The detectives from the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office and Washington State Patrol who investigated the shooting also attended Thursday’s hearing.
Meade is the first police officer in Snohomish County history to face criminal charges for a line-of-duty shooting.
He pleaded not guilty in October to the manslaughter charge. He isn’t expected to answer to the murder charge until the first day of trial.
Allen requested more time to raise arguments against prosecutors charging Meade with both murder and manslaughter. He believes prosecutors lack probable cause to support a murder charge, he said.
To prove second-degree murder, prosecutors will have to show that Meade acted with intent to kill, but less than premeditation.
The additional charge isn’t based on new evidence, said Joan Cavagnaro, the county’s chief criminal deputy prosecutor. It is common for Snohomish County prosecutors to amend or add charges if a defendant proceeds to trial.
Prosecutors initially file a charge that they are willing to accept in a plea agreement involving the defendant. If the defendant doesn’t plead guilty and goes to trial, prosecutors often exercise their prerogative to add charges they believe they can prove. That is done in advance of trial to not surprise the defense, Cavagnaro said.
Additionally, juries regularly are instructed to consider a lesser charge if they aren’t convinced the more serious crime was committed.
The standard sentence range for first-degree manslaughter for someone without any criminal history is 6 1/2 to 8 1/2 years in prison. A second-degree murder charge carries a 10- to 18- year sentence.
Snohomish County Superior Court Judge Gerald Knight oversaw Thursday’s hearing and is expected to preside over the trial, which remains on track to begin April 9.
Knight told attorneys he had spent a great deal of time reviewing their written arguments about evidence.
The longtime judge said he’d been giving thought to the issues raised “daily and nightly.”
He ruled on numerous motions, mainly pertaining to information that Allen wanted to present to jurors about Meservey’s actions the night he was killed, as well as a run-in Meservey had with Snohomish County sheriff’s deputies in 2008.
In that incident, deputies reported that Meservey had barricaded himself in a room and refused to surrender. At one point he opened the door briefly, tapped his chest and told deputies to shoot him, according to court documents. Deputies eventually used an electric stun gun to subdue him.
Allen hoped to introduce that incident as evidence that Meservey had made previous attempts to be killed by law enforcement.
Snohomish County deputy prosecutor Matthew Baldock argued that Meade didn’t know about Meservey’s previous encounter with police, so the information would be irrelevant to Meade’s assertion of self-defense.
Knight agreed with prosecutors and declined to allow a jury to hear testimony about the incident. The judge also said he wasn’t inclined to allow testimony about the specifics of Meservey’s behavior inside the Chuckwagon the night he died. Testimony should be limited to what Meade knew about Meservey through the two 911 calls about a drunk, belligerent man who was being offensive to customers and staff.
Testimony that Meservey called some women foul names would only be prejudicial, the judge said.
Diana Hefley: 425-339-3463; hefley@heraldnet.com.
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