Two men accused of a misdirected home-invasion robbery Jan. 7 would face decades behind bars if a deliberating Snohomish County Superior Court jury convicts them of all eight serious felonies.
Jurors Tuesday began to ponder the fate of Tomas Solomon Afeworki, 26, of Lynnwood and Michael Hale Gebrehiwet, 26, of Seattle.
Both are charged with an assortment of charges including kidnapping and assault after they allegedly burst into an apartment near Lynnwood and held three women at gunpoint.
Deputy prosecutor Tobin Darrow told jurors Tuesday that the two went into the apartment looking for drugs and money, but things got ugly when “they got the wrong house. This family didn’t have any drugs or money.”
The crime was foiled after the men asked one of the women to call someone else who had drugs and money, and she dialed 911 for help.
The jurors heard a recording of her strange and distant call, and a second panicky conversation with a dispatcher when the emergency center called back to find out what was really happening.
Snohomish County sheriff’s deputies were dispatched to find out what was going on, and Afeworki ran when officers knocked on the door. Gebrehiwet was later found hiding nearby in a tree stump.
Afeworki, who testified, admitted he made his living dealing drugs, and told jurors he frequently went to the apartment and sold crack cocaine there. He denied threatening anybody and accused the people who lived in the apartment of being dope dealers themselves.
He also said neither of the two men was armed that day, and there was no reason for the woman to call 911. He said they made up the story to avoid paying Afeworki money they owed him.
In closing arguments Tuesday, Darrow called that a “make-believe tale.”
Afeworki attorney Steve Garvey of Everett, pointed out that the three women were inconsistent in details of their testimony, and the police merely assumed that the women were victims after the two defendants fled.
Gebrehiwet’s attorney, Mickey Krom of Everett, told jurors that the three women lied to police and on the witness stand, including one who said she had been struck 20 or 30 times.
That in and of itself, Krom said, is reason to doubt all her testimony.
Jurors were scheduled to continue deliberating this morning.
Reporter Jim Haley: 425-339-3447 or haley@heraldnet.com.
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