EVERETT — A Monroe man returned from a casino with three of his roommates around 2 a.m. Sunday.
He opened his bedroom door to find an intruder covered in blood, holding two knives.
Two men suffered knife wounds in a lengthy scuffle at the apartment in the 600 block of Terrace Street, Monroe police Sgt. Brian Johnston said.
The suspect was booked into the Snohomish County Jail on Monday, for investigation of second-degree murder, two counts of second-degree assault and residential burglary. He’d been held at a hospital for injuries suffered in the fight.
During the struggle, the men kept bumping into a couch near the front door, where another roommate slept. But that man did not wake up, Johnston said.
The group of tenants pulled a blanket off of him, to find he was dead and covered in slash wounds.
Police arrived to find the suspect restrained by the roommates.
Detectives struggled to find a motive.
A total seven people lived in the apartment. The suspect, 28, of Monroe, had stayed there in the past. Yet he had no apparent reason to be there Sunday.
Two residents had been in their room in the early morning hours, police said. They reportedly didn’t hear the fatal attack. Both knives were recovered by police. The residents did not recognize the weapons.
The identity of the deceased man had not been released Monday.
Court records show the suspect has a felony record of drug crime and stolen vehicle possession. He has a misdemeanor history of domestic violence assault.
He’d been charged with sexually assaulting a girl, 16, who was highly intoxicated by alcohol, cannabis and synthetic cannabis in 2013. Charges were dropped months later when the girl was, “at present, disinterested in pursuing the prosecution of this case,” according to a prosecutor’s memo.
Most recently, the man was jailed for a possibly delusional act of revenge against a bistro in Monroe. He’d walked into a restaurant on Lewis Street in 2015, demanding to be paid for work he claimed he’d done years earlier, according to charging papers.
The restaurant owner looked into it, but he found no record that the man had ever worked there. When he explained this to him, the man replied that the bistro would “get what’s coming.”
One night six months later, the man threw a rock through the front window, causing about $1,160 in damage. He was identified by an eyewitness.
He was sentenced to three months in jail for felony malicious mischief, in that case. At the time, he listed his address as his family’s home in Sultan.
Caleb Hutton: 425-339-3454; chutton@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @snocaleb.
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