EVERETT – An ex-convict from California is facing a new felony charge after he made racial threats when asked to leave an Everett convenience store, prosecutors said.
Terry Taylor Merriot, 38, of Farmersville, Calif., was arrested Saturday after the store owner, who is of Korean descent, told police the man had shouted racial slurs and threatened to kill him with a claw hammer.
The threats came after the store’s owner asked Merriot, who had been sitting outside, to leave the property, Snohomish County deputy prosecutor Tobin Darrow said Tuesday in Superior Court papers.
The store’s owner said Merriot pulled out a hammer and threatened to kill him, repeatedly shouting a racial slur. He left after turning the hammer on the store’s phone booth, Darrow said.
When confronted by police, Merriot continued to use racial slurs to describe the store’s owner and said he would kill the man for calling police, according to court papers.
“Who the (expletive) is he to tell me that I can’t be there?” the prosecutor quoted Merriot telling police.
Merriot is charged with one count of felony malicious harassment. It is against Washington law to put somebody in fear of harm based on who they are, including race, color, ancestry, gender or sexual orientation.
Merriot has been locked up at the county jail in Everett in lieu of $5,000 bail. He has three prior felony convictions and nine misdemeanors, including four assaults, Darrow said.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
