Herald staff
EVERETT — A Mill Creek man pleaded innocent Wednesday to second-degree murder in Friday’s strangulation killing of a 17-year-old Everett girl.
Robert Dale Woods, 21, entered the plea during a brief hearing in Everett District Court. He was silent during the hearing and sat with his arms crossed over his chest and a scowl on his face.
Woods was arrested Friday after he summoned police to a south Everett apartment and the apparent sexual-assault killing of Jolene Desrosier, his girlfriend’s sister.
Woods said he had been staying at the girl’s apartment and came back to discover her tied and up near death. An autopsy showed she had been strangled.
Detectives obtained a search warrant to examine the apartment and a car that Woods allegedly had been driving the day of the killing. Inside the car, they found a partial roll of duct tape, consistent with the tape used to bind the girl, according to court papers.
Woods has been jailed in lieu of $250,000 bail.
Desrosier was a Lake Stevens High School student who lived on her own and was attending college-level classes. She worked as a waitress.
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