EDMONDS — A Lynnwood woman must serve 13 months in prison for helping to shave a murderer’s dreadlocks, when he tried to hide from police.
Joshua Werner, 27, had been staying on the third floor of an Edmonds home on 76th Avenue W.
On the night of Jan. 6, 2018, he and his housemate Derrick “Wiz” Crawford got into an argument.
Crawford was “in a drug-induced rage,” and he believed Werner stole money and drugs from him, according to a sentencing memorandum written by his public defender. Crawford shot Werner in the head, according to court papers.
The shooter fled to a friend’s home about a quarter-mile away, then called a friend, Ryley McGhie, and asked her to pick him up. He told her he’d shot the man, but the man was still breathing.
They drove to McGhie’s house, where she helped to cut off his long dreadlocks. She later told police she dropped him off in Pierce County, so he could continue south to California. Edmonds police released a photo of Crawford to the public, and noted he may have a different haircut.
Crawford was found 10 days after the killing, hiding in a closet in Everett. The Edmonds man pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. He was sentenced to just shy of 14 years in prison in March 2018.
The next month, Snohomish County prosecutors charged McGhie with first-degree rendering criminal assistance. She pleaded guilty earlier this spring. She also admitted guilt in two other cases.
She’d been caught using a stolen credit card to buy $1,328 worth of goods from a Bothell QFC in late 2016. And in another case from late January 2018, she’d been caught stuffing her purse with $440 in stolen goods from a Kohl’s in Marysville. The purse also held a little over a gram of heroin and two grams of meth.
Snohomish County Superior Court Judge Edirin Okoloko denied her request to serve a drug offender sentencing alternative. McGhie had no prior felony record. She’d been convicted in the past of petty thefts, making false statements to police, a misdemeanor assault and driving offenses. She must undergo a chemical dependency evaluation.
Around the time of the killer’s arrest, Werner’s sister Christina Zawaideh recalled her brother had been trying to beat addiction. He’d been talking about leaving the state, in search of a fresh start.
“He was very broken, but he was very real,” she told The Daily Herald. “No matter how much trouble he got in, or what was happening in his life, he had a huge heart.”
Caleb Hutton: 425-339-3454; chutton@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @snocaleb.
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