Criminal Shot To Death At Apartment Ex-Con Arrested In Death Of Vito Tombari

One career criminal reportedly killed another Monday at a Spokane apartment.

Vito J. Tombari, 40, died shortly after being shot at his home at 516 S. Cannon about 2:30 p.m.

Tombari, who had a criminal record that spanned 26 years, was talking on a cellular phone outside the single-story apartment complex when officers arrived.

Police spokesman Dick Cottam said he was “bleeding from a wound” and collapsed on the sidewalk as officers approached him.

He later was pronounced dead at Deaconess Medical Center.

About an hour later, police arrested the alleged gunman, Kenneth D. Gooch, near Monroe and Broadway after a short foot chase.

Gooch, 40, was booked into the Spokane County Jail on suspicion of second-degree murder.

He, too, has a long record, including 16 convictions, several of them for robbery and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Police also arrested Susan Boatright, 35, at a North Side apartment. They believe Boatright accompanied Gooch to the murder scene.

She was booked into jail on a second-degree murder charge as well.

Police said late Monday they aren’t sure why Tombari had been shot.

Detectives cordoned off a one-block area around the squat white apartment building to search for evidence.

The South Cannon complex is the former home of a man who was found guilty of murdering his girlfriend.

Gary Quarles was convicted in November of fatally shooting Tina M. Langford through a window in a Vinegar Flats home. He is awaiting sentencing for the 1994 crime.

Monday, officers picked up another woman for questioning in Tombari’s death.

They found her hiding at a South Hill residence with what they think is the getaway car.

A witness said an older, brownish-red car driven by a woman pulled up to Tombari’s residence shortly before the shooting, Capt. Roger Bragdon said.

The witness saw a man and at least one woman get out of the car, Bragdon said. The witness didn’t hear or see the actual shooting.

Police received a call about a shooting a short time later and arrived to find Tombari outside.

Paramedics tried for several minutes to revive him on the sidewalk and continued their efforts as he was placed on a gurney and put into an ambulance.

Neighbor Nichole Stalcuparrived home shortly after the shooting.

Stalcup said Tombari had “his business” and that she tried to stay out of it. She didn’t elaborate.

“I don’t really know what he does because I don’t question him,” Stalcup said.

Tombari had done time - a lot of it.

He racked up his first conviction at age 14, when he was convicted of delinquency, trespassing and assault.

Tombari since had been arrested for assault and possession of cocaine, amphetamines and hashish, and he had served time in federal, state and county jails.

His latest conviction came in October 1994 when he pleaded guilty to beating and stabbing his girlfriend.

Prosecutors said Tombari pressed a knife to Marla Scott’s throat, threatened to cut off her fingers, clubbed her with a mallet, knocked her unconscious and stabbed her in the thigh.

He served 10 months in the county jail after Scott asked a judge to grant him leniency, saying the attack had been blown out of proportion.

Monday also was not the first time Tombari had been hit with gunfire.

In 1993, he was shot in the shoulder at a Spokane Valley motel in what detectives think may have been a robbery attempt.

Gooch, too, has been in plenty of trouble.

As an 18-year-old in 1973, he pleaded guilty to second-degree burglary, and he has been in and out of jail ever since.

Gooch made headlines in 1992 when a federal judge reversed a conviction against him, ruling that evidence police had seized during a search of his tent was inadmissible.

U.S. District Judge Justin Quackenbush ruled that the tent constituted a house and that police needed a warrant to search it. They didn’t have one.

Monday’s killing was the city’s first homicide of 1996.

There were 23 murders in Spokane last year, a record high.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 Photos; Map of shooting site

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: THE RAP SHEETS Vito J. Tombari and Kenneth D. Gooch both have long criminal histories. Tombari, 40, first was convicted of delinquency, trespassing and assault when he was 14. He had been in and out of federal, state and county jails since the 1970s and was ordered to leave the state of Washington as a condition of parole in 1988. Gooch, also 40, racked up his first conviction when he was 18, for second-degree burglary. Police said he has at least 16 convictions since then. The following is a list of some of the arrests, convictions and other brushes with the law the two men have had:

Tombari September 1974, charged with possession of a controlled substance after he and an acquaintance were found with 20,000 amphetamine tablets. August 1975, arrested on suspicion of possessing stolen property. February 1980, arrested and charged with second-degree assault after he allegedly rammed his van into a group of people brawling outside a downtown tavern; four people were hurt. February 1983, arrested on an outstanding traffic warrant after he was caught riding in a car with a robbery suspect. March 1983, arrested and charged with possession of a controlled substance (cocaine). 1982-83, suspected by a Spokane city-county task force of being involved in a statewide burglary ring. July 1984, arrested and charged on two counts of possession of a controlled substance (cocaine and hashish). March 1988, ordered by his parole board to leave the state of Washington as a condition of parole. Two months later, arrested in a federal drug sting. Later convicted and sentenced to five years in federal prison. September 1993, shot in the shoulder at a Spokane Valley motel in what detectives speculated was a robbery attempt gone sour. Tombari was seen with a large sum of cash shortly before the shooting. October 1994, sentenced to 10 months in county jail after pleading guilty to second-degree assault for attacking his girlfriend. Prosecutors said Tombari pressed a knife to the woman’s throat, threatened to cut off her fingers, clubbed her with a mallet, broke her cheekbone and stabbed her in the thigh.

Gooch April 1973, convicted of second-degree burglary after pleading guilty to purse-snatching. February 1980, charged with second-degree burglary after he allegedly broke into a Spokane Valley pharmacy with his wife and a friend. April 1987, arrested on suspicion of burglary. July 1987, arrested after reportedly taking part in two convenience-store robberies. August 1991, arrested and convicted in Stevens County for illegally possessing a firearm. That arrest was deemed illegal by a federal judge, who said deputies who found the gun needed a warrant to search the tent Gooch was living in at the time. -Research by staff writer Adam Lynn