MARYSVILLE — Two men accused of beating a Marysville grandmother to death with a hammer used the victim’s credit cards to go on a spending spree and pay for a cross-country road trip, prosecutors said Wednesday.
Joshua Gilliam and Ryan Miller’s spending habits may have been their undoing.
Gilliam and Miller are accused of brutally attacking Shirley Sweeton, 73, inside her Marysville home Friday.
Police believe the men took Sweeton’s credit cards, the contents of her safe and her 1998 Buick. After the slaying, they used Sweeton’s debit card to buy cigarettes and clothes at the Lynnwood Wal-Mart and food at the McDonald’s in Monroe, Snohomish County deputy prosecutor Janice Albert wrote in court papers.
The men continued to use the card until it was declined, Marysville Cmdr. Robb Lamoureux said.
Marysville detectives, hoping the spending trail might resume, worked with the credit card companies to reactivate the cards.
Sure enough, the cards were used at stores along a freeway in Iowa, Lamoureux said. It appeared the suspects were heading to Missouri.
Marysville police alerted officials there and the men were arrested a short time later, he said. A Missouri State Patrol trooper stopped Sweeton’s Buick at a highway rest stop.
That’s when Miller told the trooper “We did something we should not have done. … We killed someone, an old lady. He hit her with a hammer seven or eight times, and I hit her twice. … We were on heroin,” Albert wrote.
Gilliam, 25, and Miller, 22, were charged Wednesday with second-degree murder. A Snohomish County judge issued a $1 million arrest warrant for the men.
“We’re ecstatic that they are in custody,” Lamoureux said.
Two Marysville detectives on Wednesday flew to Bethany, Mo., to interview the men at the Harrison County Law Enforcement Center.
Officials are weighing options for returning the suspects to Washington state.
Because of budget cuts, the U.S. Marshals Service is unable to help. The Department of Homeland Security may help, otherwise officers from Marysville will have to drive the nearly 2,000 miles to Bethany to bring the men back, Lamoureux said.
Officials have finished collecting evidence at the home on 70th Avenue NE.
The hammer hasn’t been recovered. The men dumped it as they drove east along U.S. 2, according to court records. Detectives hope the suspects can pinpoint the location so detectives don’t waste valuable time searching, Lamoureux said.
“Our work is far from over,” he said. “Now our work is with a lot less pressure on us.”
Gilliam and Miller are friends, and were living in the men’s shelter in Everett, Albert wrote. Gilliam had lived with Sweeton while he dated her granddaughter. In the past, he had fraudulently used Sweeton’s credit cards and also taken her car without her permission, Albert wrote.
Sweeton asked for a protection order in September against Gilliam on her granddaughter’s behalf. The younger woman has mental health issues. A judge determined that she was incapable of caring for herself and appointed Sweeton as her guardian. Sweeton alleged that Gilliam coerced her granddaughter, 24, to steal and give him money to buy drugs, according to court documents. She told the judge she was afraid of Gilliam.
Sweeton’s granddaughter and Gilliam had broken up in recent months. The younger woman moved out of her grandmother’s house and has been living in a group home. Police have said they don’t believe that she was involved in the slaying.
Sweeton was found Monday morning. Her sister was worried after she hadn’t heard from Sweeton over the weekend and went to her home. The victim was lying face up on a bed. Her face was covered in blood and there was blood on the walls and ceiling, Albert wrote.
Police discovered that Sweeton’s purse was open and her debit and credit cards were missing. Her prescription medicine also was gone.
Her credit cards were used Saturday morning at a McDonald’s and a Wal-Mart. A surveillance video showed Gilliam driving Sweeton’s Buick with Miller in the passenger seat, Albert wrote.
The men continued to use the cards as they traveled through Montana, North Dakota and Minnesota. Miller reportedly called his mother Tuesday night from the road. He said he was with a friend from the Everett homeless shelter, Albert wrote.
Gilliam was being monitored on community custody after convictions for failing to register as a sex offender and heroin possession. Gilliam was charged in 2000 with child molestation for a sexual assault on a young relative. Miller also has a long criminal record.
Both men were patients at Compass Health, Albert wrote. Court documents show that Gilliam and Miller have been treated for mental health problems.
Diana Hefley: 425-339-3463, hefley@heraldnet.com.
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