Man booked and charged in 2018 Everett homicide

Samuel Axlund is accused of attacking Jay Agostinelli, who was homeless, on Broadway.

EVERETT — A suspect in an Everett homicide was booked Wednesday into the Snohomish County Jail.

Samuel Axlund, 22, is accused of killing Jay Agostinelli, 62.

Agostinelli was attacked near a bus stop on N. Broadway on May 23. He suffered skull fractures. Doctors believe the injuries were from a hammer.

Agostinelli never regained consciousness. He developed pneumonia and died June 3.

Witnesses said the suspect ran from the scene, east on 12th Street.

Court records show police identified Axlund in the following weeks, though that information was not shared with the public. By then, Axlund was behind bars in Whatcom County for an unrelated incident. He’d been arrested there on May 26 and later pleaded guilty to assault in that case.

Axlund, of Bellingham, has been charged in Snohomish County Superior Court with second-degree murder.

Records show he was transferred from the Whatcom County Jail at the end of his sentence there. He had a hearing scheduled Thursday in Everett.

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The charges contain new information about what investigators believe happened.

Witnesses said Agostinelli, who was homeless, was standing at the bus stop around midnight, “yelling at nothing in particular.” He was approached by a man who assaulted him, knocking him to the ground.

Others said they saw the man begin to walk away, but then he returned and hit Agostinelli several more times.

Surveillance video pulled from nearby businesses appeared to match those accounts, according to the charges. Images from the footage were distributed in a police bulletin, and someone in Marysville said they recognized Axlund.

The defendant also reportedly had used his food-stamp card at the N. Broadway 7-Eleven around the time of the attack. In addition, he was seen on transit security cameras traveling from Everett to Bellingham on May 25.

At some point, police went to look around the mobile home park in the area where the suspect was seen running. They found a hammer on a roof there, prosecutors say. It was submitted for forensic testing.

Axlund was interviewed at the jail in Whatcom County. He said he saw a man yelling in Everett that night but gave conflicting statements about how much he’d observed. He then requested an attorney.

Police say he has talked about a bloody hammer on jailhouse calls, which were recorded.

Prosecutors have asked for bail to be set at $500,000. They noted he has missed eight court dates in other cases since 2017.

Rikki King: 425-339-3449; rking@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @rikkiking.

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