EVERETT — A man accused of murdering his ex-girlfriend’s new boyfriend in downtown Everett was arrested over the weekend.
Jeremiah Stringfellow, 27, appeared at a court hearing Monday afternoon. Everett District Court Judge Tam Bui found probable cause for first-degree murder in the Sept. 18 shooting of Naej Belledent, 22.
On the morning of the shooting, a man called 911 to report his brother had been shot in a home in the 3200 block of Wetmore Avenue.
Officers arrived to find Belledent and a woman on a bed in the apartment, according to a police report. Belledent reportedly suffered multiple gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead at the scene. The woman was not injured, police wrote.
The person who called 911 reported he had awoken to a loud noise and saw what looked like a 6-foot-tall man running from the apartment. He found Belledent covered in blood and called police.
Investigators served a search warrant on the apartment and found four .40-caliber spent cartridge cases and two live cartridges.
The Snohomish County Medical Examiner’s Office determined Belledent’s cause of death was homicide and the manner of death was gunshot wounds. The autopsy showed he had been shot four times at point-blank range.
The woman told police she and Stringfellow had previously dated for five years. In that time, Stringfellow assaulted and strangled her an estimated 30 times, she said, adding that she went unconscious two of those times.
After they broke up, the woman reported Stringfellow stalked her. Police learned Stringfellow placed a magnet GPS tracking device on her car.
Cell phone data obtained via warrant suggested Stringfellow entered the “north Everett” area around 6:20 a.m. the morning of the shooting, according to the arrest report.
Starting roughly two hours after the shooting, detectives reported Stringfellow’s Google search history included terms such as “harold everett,” “everettt news,” “shooting in north Everett today” and “Wetmore ave Everett wa.”
Shortly after 4 p.m. Saturday, police arrested Stringfellow at an apartment in the 6400 block of Broadway in Everett. He was booked into the Snohomish County Jail.
Stringfellow remained in custody Monday with bail set at $1 million.
Ellen Dennis: 425-339-3486; ellen.dennis@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @reporterellen.
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