Police Arrest Second Man In Slayings Accused Of Helping Ken Arrasmith Kill Couple

A man investigators allege was an accomplice to Kenneth Arrasmith in the May slayings of a Lewiston couple was arrested Thursday, Nez Perce County Sheriff Ron Koeper said.

Kyle A. Richardson, 25, of Lewiston, was held without bond at the county jail for investigation of conspiracy to commit murder, authorities said. An initial court appearance was scheduled for today.

The sheriff’s department said an investigation into the killings of Ronald and Luella Bingham “has uncovered additional information that a second subject was involved.”

Koeper said the arrest will not affect the charges against Arrasmith, who awaits a Nov. 6 trial. No further details of the arrest were released.

The Binghams - Luella, 42, and Ronald, 46 - were gunned down in their ramshackle auto shop on the city’s east side on May 17.

Prosecutors allege Ronald Bingham was shot 23 times with a semiautomatic pistol, while his wife was shot six times in the back as she tried to run away.

Shortly after the shootings, Arrasmith surrendered to police in Clarkston, Wash., just across the Snake River from Lewiston.

Arrasmith, 44, does not admit to shooting the Binghams and has pleaded innocent to two counts of first-degree murder.

Prosecutors contend the truck driver killed the Binghams because he believed his own 15-year-old daughter had been sexually abused by the couple.

The case has attracted national attention, and Arrasmith has won the support of many local residents.

Since his arrest, 17 women have come forward with stories of sex- and drug-abuse involving the Binghams and stretching over two decades, say Roy and Craig Mosman, Arrasmith’s Moscow-based attorneys.