EVERETT — A Lynnwood man is now charged with second-degree assault for allegedly tying up and shooting a 4-year-old girl with an AirSoft gun so often that the welts on her skin looked like chicken pox.
Stetson Tedder, 26, punished his step-daughter by causing pain that was the equivalent of torture, deputy prosecutor Adam Cornell said in documents filed Thursday in Snohomish County Superior Court.
The girl had dozens of red marks on her body and scars on her wrists and ankles, which medical experts determined came from being repeatedly bound with ligatures, Cornell said.
The child told investigators that Tedder had been hog-tying her with plastic zip ties and duct tape, and shooting her with a toy gun that fires plastic BBs designed to sting but not break the skin when they hit.
“He’s mean,” she reportedly told a child forensic interview specialist. “He shoots me with BB guns.”
Tedder allegedly told investigators that he would duct tape the girl’s wrists to restrain her as punishment, but never longer than 30 minutes. He also said the girl must have heard about hog-tying from listening to him playing Red Dead Redemption, a video game that Tedder said features restraining people for extra points.
When police searched the home they found zip ties, including one in a garbage bag in the child’s room, which “appeared to have numerous teeth marks that suggested the restraint had been chewed,” Cornell wrote.
Tedder has been free on $25,000 bail. The prosecutor wants that doubled, based on new evidence suggesting that the girl was abused on multiple days.
He also wants court orders requiring no contact with the girl or other witnesses except through attorneys and a prohibition on possessing firearms.
Tedder’s wife also has obtained protective orders to keep him away from her and her children.
Scott North: 425-339-3431; north@heraldnet.com.
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