SEATTLE — A 25-year-old man arrested last week in connection with a 2018 homicide near Alki Beach won’t face murder charges after King County prosecutors determined he has a plausible self-defense claim, even though he doesn’t remember his encounter with two young men near Luna Park that ended with one of them bleeding to death from a stab wound to the neck.
In a six-page memo released Friday, Senior Deputy Prosecutor Scott O’Toole reviewed the evidence and witness statements in the yearlong Seattle police investigation into the June 2, 2018, killing of Jonathan Pecina, 22. O’Toole concluded the case is legally insufficient to warrant criminal charges. The investigation found Pecina and a 19-year-old friend — who was armed with a handgun — were the aggressors who instigated a fight with the 25-year-old suspect, taunting him and whipping him with their belts before the man pulled a knife and struck Pecina in the neck.
Even in the immediate aftermath of Pecina’s death, the detectives investigating the case and O’Toole came to a preliminary consensus that the suspect may have a strong self-defense claim, the memo says.
In January, Seattle police produced a first-of-its-kind video featuring video-surveillance footage and other evidence from the homicide case in an appeal for Pecina’s killer to come forward. Police revealed that detectives had the killer’s DNA profile but at the time the video was made public, DNA submitted to the State Patrol Crime Lab in August had not produced a “hit” in the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), a national DNA database run by the FBI.
Court records show the man was ordered to provide his DNA after a conviction for malicious mischief in May 2018 for setting a police patrol car on fire, and again in January, when he was sentenced for felony harassment for threatening a Hispanic man with a knife in Redmond six days after Pecina was killed.
Held and released
During a later, routine search of CODIS, the man’s DNA matched the “dominant” DNA profile on a knife sheath found at the homicide scene.
Notified of the DNA match on June 25, Seattle police arrested the 25-year-old on Monday afternoon at a West Seattle coffee shop. Though a judge found probable cause to hold him on investigation of second-degree murder, he was to be released from the King County Jail on Friday since prosecutors declined to file charges, according to a prosecutor’s spokeswoman.
The man who was arrested is homeless and appears to be mentally unstable with a severe drinking problem, according to the memo written by O’Toole. He also has “vile political beliefs” and a criminal history “in which racial animosity appears to be a common theme,” but given the facts of the case, “a reasonable jury would be justified in finding (the man) acted in self-defense.”
According to the memo:
Pecina and three friends drove from Everett early on the afternoon of June 2, 2018, to hang out on Alki. At some point, the friends split up, with Pecina and a 19-year-old heading off “to find some girls.”
A couple living in a nearby condominium later reported seeing an altercation in which two Hispanic men had surrounded a white man and were baiting him while removing their belts.
“At one point, the white male swung his arm out and one of the Hispanic males went down,” the memo says.
Video-surveillance footage appeared to confirm that two men had confronted a third, then removed something from their waistbands, with the third man swinging his arm at the other two. He fled when one of the other men dropped to the ground. The male who fell was helped up by his companion, who walked him across the street, passing in front of a car and forcing it to stop before getting to the spot where Pecina’s body was eventually found.
Later that night, three teenagers — the occupants of a BMW that was forced to stop by a young man crossing the street, dragging a second man along — came forward and told police they drove off when they saw the second man was armed with a handgun.
“All three teenagers thought that the man with the gun might be attempting to carjack them,” the memo said, also noting that the front of the teenagers’ car was covered in blood.
The 25-year-old was interviewed by police after his arrest Monday.
“Based on his demeanor, his account of life on the streets and his alcohol history, it is entirely plausible the fight with Pecina was something that he truly may not recall,” wrote O’Toole, who apparently witnessed the interview.
O’Toole concluded the state cannot in good faith pursue a murder charge against the man because prosecutors would be unable to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he did not act in self-defense.
