washington | My Crime Library

Christian Dressel Charged In Jack In The Box Murder

Christian Dressel has been charged with murder in a fatal incident that took place at a Jack In The Box in Washington State. According to police reports Christian Dressel would nudge the vehicle that James Brown was a passenger in. The driver of the vehicle that James Brown in would yell at Christian Dressel telling him there was a vehicle in front of her and she could not move. James Brown would eventually get out of the vehicle to confront Christian Dressel and was run over numerous times by Dressel. Christian Dressel would drive off and would later confess to his mother he was responsible for the Jack In Box murder. Christian Dressel would be arrested and charged with second degree murder.

Christian Dressel More News

The man suspected of driving over a 68-year-old in a Jack in the Box drive-through in Spanaway was charged with first-degree murder on Wednesday.

Christian Dressel allegedly ran over James David Brown with “premeditated intent” on Feb. 26, according to charging documents. Dressel also faces charges of second-degree murder and tampering with physical evidence.

Dressel pleaded not guilty to all three charges on Wednesday. His bail was set at $1.5 million.

The incident may have been the result of mistaken identity, according to probable cause documents.

On the evening of Feb. 26, James Brown – who went by David, according to his family – was in the passenger seat of a truck. His wife was driving when they decided to stop for food on their way home, according to documents.

The driver of an SUV, later identified as Dressel, drove forward in the drive-through until the front bumper was touching the rear bumper of the Brown’s truck, according to documents. Brown’s wife put the truck in park and told Dressel there was a vehicle in front of them and she couldn’t pull forward. Dressel then yelled at the Browns, according to documents.

Though they weren’t sure what Dressel was saying at the time, Brown’s wife later recalled it was along the lines of telling her “boyfriend” to “stay away from my girl,” according to probable cause documents.

There is no known connection between Dressel, his girlfriend, and James David Brown, according to documents. Detectives theorize Dressel mistook the victim’s truck for a different truck that Dressel saw near the home of his girlfriend and followed it.

After being yelled at, James David Brown exited the truck. Shortly after, his wife heard people yelling. When she got out of the truck to look for her husband, she saw him under Dressel’s vehicle and “watched him get run over multiple times,” according to documents.

There were multiple witnesses that spoke to police, according to probable cause documents.

Dressel admitted to his mother he was the one who hit Brown, though at a different location and that it was an accident, according to documents. His mother called 911 to report what he told her.

When he was arrested, Dressel told police he was at the drive-through, but the vehicle in front of him backed up to the front of his car, according to documents. Dressel said Brown walked behind his vehicle and that he backed up, but he didn’t know he had hit Brown, according to documents. He then stated he tried to re-correct his vehicle and when he backed up, he hit Brown, according to documents.

“The defendant told detectives that he was sorry, and said he didn’t mean to do it. He stated he left because he was scared. The defendant also said that he read the report that reported he hit him [Brown] three times and told detectives that wasn’t what happened,” probable cause documents state.

Dressel denied hitting Brown more than once.

Detectives noted inconsistencies with Dressel’s story while they were interviewing him. After being confronted, he stated that he was “doing Dust-Off [huffing]” before ordering his food, according to probable cause documents. He said he “went out” and was “revving his engine and hit the truck, which is what caused everything,” the documents state.

Detectives later located the Chrysler Pacifica Dressel was driving that night at a salvage yard. It had been taken apart. They also found a truck Dressel had allegedly been driving the day before that he also sold. The bumper of the Chrysler was in the bed of the truck, according to probable cause documents.

Dressel was arrested March 1.

https://www.king5.com/article/news/crime/driver-faces-murder-charge-spanaway-drive-through/281-2c73b1ee-c6df-4604-b4e5-b1ded4567a15

Robbrie Thompson Teen Killer Murders Store Clerk

Robbrie Thompson was a sixteen year old teen killer from Washington State that would shoot and kill a store clerk during a robbery and would later murder his accomplice. According to court documents Robbrie Thompson would enter the Handy Corner Store where Soon Ja Nam would be shot and killed. However Robbrie Thompson would not stop there as he would also shoot and kill his accomplice Franklin Thuo following the robbery. Robbrie Thompson would be arrested and later convicted of armed robbery and two counts of murder. Robbrie Thompson would be sentenced to forty years in prison.

Robbrie Thompson 2023 Information

431160

THOMPSON, ROBBRIE P

Washington Corrections Center

Robbrie Thompson Other News

A teenager convicted of killing the 79-year-old owner of a popular Puyallup corner store during a robbery, then fatally shooting his alleged accomplice on a grassy Commencement Bay beach, faced sentencing Friday in Pierce County Superior Court. Robbrie Thompson, 16 at the time of the armed robbery and 19 now, was sentenced to 40 years in prison, below the standard sentencing range. During the hearing, Judge James Orlando said the sentence was below the standard range to avoid handing a juvenile offender what would essentially be a life sentence. “I believe there are two people inside of Mr. Thompson,” Orlando said in court. “There is one who can pretend the picture of being a concerned young man, somebody who could do well in school, who wants to involve themselves, who wants to apologize, but the bottom line is the only person that Mr. Thompson cares about is Mr. Thompson.”

Defense attorneys had asked that Thompson receive 25 years, the minimum term for aggravated murder committed by people between the ages of 16 and 18. A Pierce County jury in September found Thompson guilty of all eight charges against him. The charges stemmed from the April 27, 2019 armed robbery at the Handy Corner Store where Soon Ja Nam, who owned and operated it with her husband, was killed, and from the death of 16-year-old Franklin Thuo, who allegedly helped rob the store.

Thuo was found dead on the shore of Chinook Marina two days later with a gunshot wound to the back of the head. Prosecutors said Thompson killed Thuo over a fear that he would talk to authorities about Nam’s death. Jurors found Thompson guilty of two counts of first-degree aggravated murder, first-degree murder, first-degree robbery, conspiracy to commit robbery, two counts of second-degree assault and unlawful possession of a firearm. Thompson’s second charge, first-degree murder, was dismissed Friday to prevent the possibility of future double jeopardy, Orlando said. During the hearing, prosecutors presented the facts of the crimes again, noting the steps Thompson took to avoid detection by police. Deputy prosecutor Brian Wasankari said Thompson turned off his phone before going to Puyallup, donned a mask and rubber gloves in Thuo’s Nissan before the robbery and told people close to him not to talk about what happened over text because he knew the messages could find their way to the eyes of law enforcement. “This is someone who planned crimes over the course of days, deliberated about them with a confidant, considered alternate courses of action and chose those that resulted in the deaths of two people, an elderly shopkeeper who posed no physical threat, and a 16-year-old boy who wound up face down on the beach,” Wasankari said in court.

In the defense’s response, attorney Paula Olsen argued that Thompson’s age at the time of the crime, his upbringing which included some abuses by his father and his difficulties with mental health exhibited after the killings were factors that supported a shorter sentence. In Thompson’s address to the court, he apologized to the family’s of the victims, but said that he did not commit the crimes. During his trial in September, Thompson testified that he wasn’t the one who actually shot Nam. In regard to Thuo, he testified that he and others — who he wouldn’t name — brought the teenager to Chinook Marina, and that one of those people actually killed Thuo. Prosecutors pointed to the fact that after the deadly robbery, Thompson talked with a confidant at length, asking her repeatedly whether he should kill Thuo to prevent him from “ratting on him.” Thompson also searched online for “where is the best place to shoot someone” before turning off his cell phone for about 90 minutes, prosecutors said. When Thuo’s body was found, he was missing his white Adidas Yeezy sneakers, which are retailed for $360. During Friday’s hearing, prosecutors played brief videos showing Thompson modeling the same shoes on Snapchat after Thuo was killed.

Robbrie Thompson Now

Robbrie Thompson is currently incarcerated at the Washington Corrections Center

Robbrie Thompson Release Date

Robbrie Thompson is not eligible for release until 2060

Timothy Hernandez-Ebanks Teen Killer Murders Stranger

Timothy Hernandez-Ebanks was a fourteen year old teen killer from Washington State that would murder a stranger. According to court documents Timothy Hernandez-Ebanks would follow the victim down a street and would pull out a gun and fatally shoot the stranger. Timothy Hernandez-Ebanks would be arrested, convicted and sentenced. Timothy Hernandez-Ebanks would make news a year later when he and a number of other youths were able to escape from the Echo Glen Children’s Center.

Timothy Hernandez-Ebanks 2023 Information

Timothy Hernandez-Ebanks is being held in a Washington State Juvenile facility

Timothy Hernandez-Ebanks More News

Law enforcement authorities on Wednesday asked for the public’s help to find a murder convict who was one of five incarcerated teens who fled from confinement at Echo Glen Children’s Center.

The King County Sheriff’s Office said the teens, who range in ages from 14 to 17, escaped the center around 7:45 a.m. after they allegedly assaulted a guard before fleeing in a blue 2018 Ford Fusion.

Timothy Hernandez-Ebanks, 15, had the most serious charge after he was convicted in 2021 for first-degree murder and unlawful possession of a firearm in connection with a slaying that occurred in southwest King County.

Authorities did not identify the other escapees but did release information about Hernandez-Ebanks out of a “concern for the safety and well being of the public.”

Investigators said they were trying to determine how the teens escaped and had not ruled out the possibility that they had help from the inside.

According to court documents, Timothy Hernandez-Ebanks was convicted for his admitted slaying of Hassan Ali Hassan, 35, who was fatally shot on April 21, 2020 as he was walking from work to his home in Burien

According to court documents, the convicted murderer followed his target, whom he did not know, and shot him in the back of the head, telling investigators that he “just felt like doing it.”

The victim had immigrated to the U.S. in 2007 from Somalia and worked two jobs on many occasions to support his family.

As investigators sought to find the five escapees, it was not clear if the five teens were still together or if they have gone their separate ways.

According to the sheriff’s office, the male suspects could be driving a 2018 gray Ford Fusion with a WA license 27545E that was also taken during the escape.

Anyone with information was asked to call 911 or the King County Sheriff’s non-emergency number at 206-296-3311.

https://komonews.com/news/local/deputies-head-to-echo-glen-childrens-center-for-multiple-escapees

Timothy Hernandez-Ebanks Now

Timothy Hernandez-Ebanks is currently incarcerated within the Washington Juvenile System

Timothy Hernandez-Ebanks Release Date

Timothy Hernandez-Ebanks was convicted as a juvenile and his current release is his 21 birthday

Timothy Haag Teen Killer Murders 7 year-old Rachel Dillard

Timothy Haag was seventeen years old when he murdered seven year old Rachel Dillard in a bathtub. According to court documents Timothy Haaf would choke and drown Rachel Dillard in a bathtub to get back at her parents for the way they treated Rachel brother Alex. Timothy Haag would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to life in prison without parole however later that sentence would be overturned and he would be sentenced to 46 years in prison. However the 46 prison sentence was deemed to be unconstitutional and this teen killer is currently waiting resentencing

Timothy Haag 2023 Information

731136

HAAG, TIMOTHY E

Stafford Creek Corrections Center

Timothy Haag More News

The Washington state Supreme Court on Thursday overturned a 46-year sentence for a man who killed his friend’s little sister when he was 17, finding the punishment focused more on retribution than rehabilitation.

Timothy Haag of Longview was initially sentenced to life without parole for choking and drowning 7-year-old Rachel Dillard in a bathtub in 1994.

But in 2018, after the U.S. Supreme Court found that automatic life sentences for juveniles were unconstitutional, Haag was resentenced to at least 46 years — a term that could have seen him released at age 63.

The state Supreme Court unanimously ruled that Cowlitz Superior Court Judge Michael Evans failed during resentencing to properly weigh the significant evidence of Haag’s rehabilitation behind bars, which included good behavior, a high school diploma, work in the prison chapel and kitchen, and his religious conversion.

Six of the nine justices also said a 46-year sentence for a juvenile is unconstitutional because it amounts to the equivalent of a life sentence, depriving them of a meaningful chance to return to society.

The ruling builds on a steady trend in state and federal courts of recognizing that children must be treated differently from adults when they commit crimes, even heinous ones.

“I had 25 years of conduct the justices could look at that exemplifies what the courts have been saying about how children have a greater capacity for growth and rehabilitation,” Mary Kay High, Haag’s appeals lawyer, said Thursday. “They want to make it very clear to trial courts that mitigation is what requires consideration and weight at these hearings.”

In resentencing hearings for people who committed crimes as juveniles, “retributive factors must count for less than mitigating factors,” Justice Helen Whitener wrote in the ruling. “The resentencing court’s inversion of this balance clearly misapplies our statutes and our precedent.”

The court awarded Haag a new sentencing hearing, though the justices did not suggest what might be an appropriate prison term.

Timothy Haag had serious social and emotional troubles as a teen. He grew up in poverty, was bullied at school, abandoned by his father, mistreated by his stepfather and struggled with shame over his sexuality and attraction to his friend, Rachel Dillard’s half-brother, Alex.

Timothy Haag claimed that he killed the girl to punish her family for the way they treated Alex Dillard “like dirt” — including abusing him and forcing him to live in a rat-infested garage. Alex had left the home to escape the abuse, compounding Haag’s feelings of abandonment, psychologists testified.

At his resentencing hearing, he asked the judge for leniency. The minimum possible sentence, 25 years, could have seen Haag released less than two years later.

“There is nothing I can say to make up for what I did,” Haag said, according to an account in The Daily News of Longview. “I hate myself for it.”

But Rachel’s family vehemently opposed Haag’s release. Her mother described how even decades later she continued to lose sleep over her daughter’s death, and her father warned the judge of “eternal hellfire” should he help Haag.

In issuing the sentence, Judge Evans noted the difficulty of balancing “a vile, cowardly and particularly heinous multistep strangulation and drowning of a defenseless, 65-pound little girl committed by a 300-pound, 17-year-old young man” with Haag’s troubled background, his youthfulness at the time of the killing and his “stellar” track record in prison.

While the high court was unanimous in finding that the judge’s decision failed to give enough weight to Haag’s rehabilitation, the justices disagreed on another point: whether a 46-year term for a teenager was unconstitutional because it amounted to the equivalent of a life sentence.

Six of the justices said it was. Three others said there was no need to answer that question in Haag’s case, with one of them, Justice Debra Stephens, saying 46 years was not necessarily unconstitutional for a teen.

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/washington/articles/2021-09-23/washington-justices-vacate-46-year-sentence-for-teen-killer

Timothy Haag Videos

Timothy Haag FAQ

Timothy Haag 2021

Timothy Haag is currently incarcerated at the Stafford Creek Correctional Center in Washington State

Timothy Haag Release Date

Timothy Haag is currently going through resentencing. He was first sentenced to life without parole, to 46 years in prison and now his 46 year sentence is being appealed

Miguel Gaitan And Joel Ramos Teen Killers Murder 4

Miguel Gaitan and Joel Ramos were both fourteen years old from Washington State that would murder four people, According to court documents Miguel Gaitan and Joel Ramos would murder Michael and Lynn Skelton and their two children Lynn and Bryan. Apparently the two teen killers were attempting to impress a street gang. Miguel Gaitan would be sentenced to four life prison sentences to be served consecutively and Joel Ramos would receive a eighty year sentence. Joel Ramos was released from prison in 2021

Miguel Gaitan 2023 Information

716752

GAITAN, MIGUEL

Monroe Correctional Complex-TRU

Miguel Gaitan More News

A 14-year-old boy, arrested in Oxnard last April for slaying a family of four in Washington state, was sentenced Tuesday as an adult to four consecutive life sentences, the Associated Press reported.

Miguel Gaitan was convicted Monday of four counts of aggravated first-degree murder for his role in the March 24 slaying of Michael and Lynn Skelton and two children in their Outlook, Wash., mobile home.

The Skeltons had moved to Washington from Fresno two years earlier to escape the rise in violence in California.

Yakima County Superior Court Judge Heather Van Nuys took pains to make Gaitan’s sentence as stiff as possible, ruling that the life terms had to be served one after another, and adding $200,000 in fines.

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled people under the age of 16 are not eligible for the death penalty.

Gaitan was one of two juveniles convicted of the slayings.

Accomplice Joel Ramos, also 14, pleaded guilty to four counts of first-degree murder in August and was sentenced to 80 years in prison.

Prosecutors said no motive was established but suspect that Gaitan and Ramos committed the murders to impress members of a street gang.

The youths were arrested after bragging about the killings to friends.

Gaitan was found in Oxnard where he had gone to stay with an aunt.

The pair burst through the front and back doors of the Skelton’s mobile home, bludgeoning and stabbing to death all four.

They clubbed and stabbed Michael Skelton, 34, who was disabled. The youths then beat and stabbed Jason Ryan Skelton, 12, and killed Lynn Skelton, 34, as she stepped from the shower.

Bryan, 6, died as he hid under his bed covers when his skull was crushed and he was stabbed through the heart.

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-12-22-me-4376-story.html

Miguel Gaitan FAQ

Miguel Gaitan Now

Miguel Gaitan is currently incarcerated at the Monroe Correctional Complex in Washington State

Miguel Gaitan Release Date

Miguel Gaitan is serving 4 life sentences

Joel Ramos Now

Joel Ramos was released from prison

Miguel Gaitan More News

A judge called Miguel Gaitan a coward yesterday as she sentenced the 14-year-old to four consecutive life terms in prison for the slaughter of a family of four.

Gaitan, convicted as an adult on four counts of aggravated first-degree murder, declined to make a statement before he was sentenced by Yakima County Superior Court Judge Heather Van Nuys.

“Your conduct was evil, vile, brutal and cowardly,” Van Nuys said. “The community will ask why you were not sentenced to death.”

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled people under the age of 16 are not eligible for the death penalty. The only other sentencing option in the case was life in prison with no chance at parole.

Van Nuys took pains to make the sentence as stiff as possible, ruling that the life terms had to be served consecutively, and adding $200,000 in fines and costs that Gaitan must pay from meager earnings in prison jobs.

“I assure you that is where you will die,” Van Nuys said to the youth.

Accomplice Joel Ramos, also 14, in August pleaded guilty to four counts of first-degree murder and was sentenced to 80 years in prison.

No motive was established for the killings. Earlier, prosecutors said they may have occurred to impress members of a street gang. The youths were arrested after bragging about the killings to friends.

During yesterday’s hearing Gaitan joked with his lawyers and stared at the judge.

Gaitan’s lawyers, Nicholas Marchi and Antonio Salazar of Seattle, have filed a notice of appeal. They declined comment.

Yakima County prosecutor Jeff Sullivan said the appeal will likely center on the judge’s refusal to move the highly publicized case to another county.

Murdered in their trailer home the night of March 24 were Michael and Lynn Skelton, both 34; Jason Skelton, 12, and Bryan Skelton, 6.

Jason Skelton was a classmate of Gaitan and Ramos at a Granger school. The family lived in Outlook, about 30 miles south of Yakima.

According to court testimony, Gaitan and Ramos burst through the front and back doors of the trailer home the evening of March 24.

They clubbed and stabbed Michael Skelton, who was crippled. They beat and stabbed Jason. Lynn Skelton was killed as she stepped out of a shower. Bryan was hiding under his bed covers when he was beaten and stabbed.

A 12-member jury took less than five hours to render the guilty verdict on Monday, after a week-long trial.

Photographs and videotapes of the crime scene were so gruesome that mental-health professionals counseled jury members after the verdict.

“A lot of jurors were showing signs of stress,” said juror Phil Jongeward after the sentencing.

Sullivan characterized Gaitan as a remorseless sociopath who has yet to show that he comprehends the enormity of his crime.

“He doesn’t seem to care,” Sullivan said. “I’d have liked to have had the death-penalty option.”

The Skeltons had moved to the Yakima Valley about two years ago, seeking to escape violence in Fresno, Calif. They were not well known in the community and no one other than prosecutors spoke on their behalf during the sentencing hearing.

Sullivan asked Van Nuys to make the sentence as punitive as possible to warn any future judges or a governor who may be petitioned to release Gaitan from prison.

He noted that a naked and defenseless Lynn Skelton suffered about 50 stab wounds.

“The defendant told a friend that he enjoyed it,” Sullivan said.

Bryan Skelton was incapable of defending himself because of his age, Sullivan added.

Van Nuys said exceptional circumstances were present and ensured that details highlighting the cruelty of the crimes would be part of Gaitan’s files.

She wondered how anyone could kill a classmate, a 6-year-old child, a crippled man and someone taking a shower.

“All of that is great cowardice,” she said.

https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/?date=19931222&slug=1738334