EVERETT — On Feb. 20, Chechemeni Paulis came home drunk, according to police.
It was the Everett man’s 24th birthday.
That night he was arrested after he was accused of trying to stab his older sister with a kitchen knife. Five days later, Paulis posted $25,000 bond and was released from jail.
On Tuesday, Paulis was arrested again, this time for investigation of second-degree murder and first-degree assault. He’s accused of stabbing to death his younger sister’s boyfriend and wounding that sister.
Around 10:20 a.m., a young woman came out of an apartment screaming that she had been stabbed, according to an Everett police report. Officers were called to the 3100 block of Oakes Avenue.
She reported someone else was dead inside.
Officers arrived to find Paulis’ sister, in her late teens, sitting at a picnic table in the building’s courtyard. A witness was sitting next to her, covering a stab wound on her back, according to police. The woman had a cut on the right side of her spine, estimated to be between 1 and 1½ inches.
The sister’s boyfriend, who was found dead on the floor inside the apartment door, reportedly had multiple stab wounds, including on his neck and near his ribs.
The deceased was identified Wednesday as Joven Deitas, according to the Snohomish County Medical Examiner’s Office. The Everett man was 26. The medical examiner’s office determined the death was a homicide.
The sister was taken to Providence Regional Medical Center Everett.
Officers believe the stabbing occurred in the apartment’s living room. Police reported it followed a domestic dispute among the suspect and the victims, who all lived together.
Paulis fled the scene, according to court documents. He may have gone toward Everett Station. Security footage from the station showed someone who looked like Paulis getting onto a Swift bus headed south. The bus goes all the way to Northgate in Seattle, with stops in Everett and Lynnwood.
Someone told police Paulis had a relative who lived near Lynnwood. Snohomish County sheriff’s deputies went to check the home on Lincoln Way. The relative there reportedly told deputies Paulis was upstairs, possibly sleeping.
Paulis came down to the front door, sat down and put his hands up, according to police. He was arrested and booked into the Snohomish County Jail.
Besides the February incident, Paulis has had another criminal charge. In 2020, he was charged in Snohomish County Superior Court with second-degree assault. He was accused of trying to stab a visitor at the Oakes Avenue apartment complex with a broken Corona bottle, according to the charges.
Given this history, Everett District Court Judge Tam Bui set bail at $2 million Wednesday.
Jake Goldstein-Street: 425-339-3439; jake.goldstein-street@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @GoldsteinStreet.
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