EVERETT — Hours after a gunshot paralyzed a man at a Lynnwood car wash, Nicholas Naylor texted a friend.
“Stressed out,” he wrote.
“I am too,” the friend texted back. “why are you stressed?”
Naylor replied with a link to a KIRO 7 story about two men who were wanted in the shooting, with security footage of what detectives believe is a blurry but distinctive profile shot of Naylor’s face.
“Thats why,” he wrote, according to new court records in the case.
Police caught up to Naylor in September. He was arrested and charged with first-degree assault for an apparent drug rip-off early Aug. 5, at the Brown Bear Car Wash off 164th Street SW. Two men — one in black, one in camo — ambushed the driver of a white sedan at a self-service stall around 1 a.m. The man in black shocked him with a stun gun, but the driver wrestled it away. The attacker went back to the PT Cruiser, grabbed a handgun and fired a shot through the rear window that hit the man’s neck. The driver, 23, survived but lost the use of his arms and legs. He will require constant medical care for the rest of his life.
That morning deputies found the PT Cruiser abandoned two miles away, at a random home, near a discarded black hoodie, a black hat and black gloves. Naylor’s temporary driver’s license was found on the floorboard.
From jail, Naylor chatted often with Tony Williams, 36, a man who played a part in the notorious murder of Rachel Burkheimer. He’d cranked up the volume of a radio to drown out Burkheimer’s screams, when she was abducted in 2002.
Some defendants in the murder are still serving life sentences. Williams was handed a 9¾-year prison term for kidnapping.
In Snohomish County, Skype-like video calls from jail are recorded. Both parties are warned that it’s not a private conversation.
In one chat with his inmate friend in autumn, Williams sat in a white SUV, showing off a glass meth pipe and talking about being a “dope fiend,” according to a summary in search warrants. The men never spoke directly about the shooting, in the videos. However, at one point Naylor asked Williams to “have a talk” with a witness in the case, according to the charges against Williams.
In the meantime, seven cigarette butts in the ashtray of the PT Cruiser had tested as a DNA match for Naylor, search warrants show. Later, in December, a crime lab found the DNA on the abandoned black clothes — which had the same emblems as the clothes worn by the shooter — were found to be a match to Williams. His genetic profile had been put into the database when he was convicted of kidnapping Burkheimer.
Williams is behind bars again, with bail set at $1 million. He pleaded not guilty this week to first-degree assault.
When he was arrested last month, sheriff’s deputies pulled over a white Jeep Compass. Williams’ wife was driving. Williams sat in the front passenger seat, where he’d recorded many of the video chats. A search of the Jeep revealed burnt foil, a torch lighter, glass smoking pipes with drug residue and plastic straws commonly used to ingest meth.
Under Williams’ seat was a zippered pouch. It held a semiautomatic Smith & Wesson .40-caliber pistol and two bullets. At the scene of the shooting, deputies recovered a .40-caliber bullet casing with a purple hue. The ammunition in the bag had the same markings, caliber and unusual purple color.
The bag also held a wallet. Inside was an “Angel VIP” card for Victoria’s Secret, with a picture of a scantily clad model in a pose, warrants show. She’s holding a finger to her lips, next to the name Tony J. Williams.
Caleb Hutton: 425-339-3454; chutton@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @snocaleb.
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