Charge filed in Pike Place Market attempted robbery case
A repeat offender who targeted a Pike Place Market business during the pandemic was charged Friday with second-degree attempted robbery by the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office.
The 56-year-old man is accused of pulling money bags from the fruit and produce stand’s safe while an employee stepped away. The defendant tried to flee with the money, but was grabbed by the employee, who yelled for help from a nearby security guard. They also called 911.
The man is charged with trying to steal more than $8,000. He also hit the fruit business employee in the head, but that man said he didn’t need medical attention, according to investigators.
“While at first blush it may appear as if the defendant has remained mostly out of trouble since his last felony conviction in 2016, he was in fact given a prison-based DOSA,” the deputy prosecuting attorney handling this case wrote in charging documents. “He was sentenced to 27 months in prison and another 27 months on community custody, leaving very little time in the community.”
DOSA is a Drug Offender Sentencing Alternative, designed to provide chemical dependency treatment and community supervision, in lieu of prison time, for people who commit a drug crime or another crime that is related to a substance use disorder.
The defendant charged in the Pike Place market attempted robbery has multiple pending harassment charges out of Everett Municipal Court.
The King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office presented the details of the case and the defendant’s history — 76 King County Jail bookings since 1986 — and asked that he be held on $20,000 bail. A judge agreed, and the defendant remains in the King County Jail.
The Pike Place Market case is the first criminal case involving the defendant sent to the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office for a charging decision since June 2016 when our office filed a third-degree assault case against him. In that case, the defendant beat a nurse causing her facial contusions. He was convicted the following December and ordered to follow all mental health treatment recommendations along with his prison sentence.
Since that conviction in 2016, the defendant was booked into the King County Jail nine times prior to the Pike Place Market incident — though none of those were cases referred to the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office for a felony charging decision.
His arraignment in this case, where he’s expected to enter a plea, is scheduled for March 4 at the King County Courthouse.
This post was published the afternoon of Feb. 22, 2021 and is not expected to be updated. Additional case details can be found in ECR with case number 21–1–00799–9.
