Four Charged In ‘Gruesome’ Homicide Suspects Allegedly Wanted To Punish Victim After Beating That Put Woman In Hospital

A man accused last year of assaulting another man with bacon is one of three charged Tuesday in connection with a murder.

Randy Thomas, 36, of Kettle Falls, is accused of participating in the killing of David P. Trail, 26. Thomas and some of his friends allegedly set out to punish Trail for assaulting Thomas’ ex-wife, Angie Garrett, 33.

Thomas and three other men are accused of breaking into Garrett’s home near Blue Creek in central Stevens County last October and killing Trail. Garrett was receiving hospital treatment at the time for injuries she said Trail inflicted.

Prosecutor Jerry Wetle said Thomas had been out of jail only about a week when Trail was killed.

Thomas pleaded guilty last year to reduced charges in a bizarre assault in which he and another man left a bleeding, pistol-whipped victim tied in the woods near Loon Lake with strips of bacon around him to attract animals.

Thomas, who was dubbed “the BLT” by other jail inmates, got off on reduced charges by testifying against his co-defendant, who he claimed forced him to participate in the crime.

“It’s particularly troubling that people are dying around his activities,” Sheriff Craig Thayer said. “This was a particularly gruesome homicide.”

Thayer said Trail was shot at least 10 times in the head and body with a .22-caliber revolver. He said statements by the suspects indicate Trail was still alive when the alleged trigger man, 32-year-old Scott A. Lindsey, of nearby Addy, Wash., reloaded and discharged a second volley.

Lindsey was charged Tuesday with first-degree murder. Thomas and Donald L. Edmondson, 30, of Colville, were charged with rendering criminal assistance. All three remain in the county jail and are to be arraigned Friday.

A fourth suspect, Edward P. Becker, 25, of Addy, remains in the Grant County Jail on an unrelated felony warrant. Wetle said the charges he filed Tuesday are “preliminary” and an investigation may lead to additional charges.

Thayer said he believes the evidence eventually will support murder charges against all the defendants. Under Washington law, if a crime results in a murder, all the participants are held responsible, even if they didn’t do the actual killing or plan it.

Authorities are still waiting for additional autopsy reports to determine whether Trail also was beaten. In addition to the revolver, Thayer said the suspects were armed with a pickax handle, a steel rod and a baseball bat.

The bat is believed to be the same one Lindsey is accused of using to threaten Thayer and his administrative assistant, Mike Blackman, on Jan. 30 when they and two deputies evicted him from a trailer park at Addy. Lindsey was charged with second-degree assault and obstructing an officer in that incident.

Lindsey escaped prosecution in 1994, when he was arrested on suspicion of second-degree domestic assault.

Thayer said Lindsey is believed to have led the other three suspects into Trail’s bedroom, where the reclining victim was shot to death. The attackers then wrapped the body in bedding and plastic and put it in a depression in the ground about 50 feet behind the trailer. They covered the body with a log, a small amount of dirt and bark, the sheriff said.

Authorities didn’t discover the crime until Feb. 7, when they received a tip from a confidential informant.

“We’re still trying to determine why it wasn’t brought to the attention of law enforcement sooner and to what extent other parties may have been involved in rendering criminal assistance after the killing,” Thayer said.

He said no one, including Garrett, reported Trail missing. She and others “may have had knowledge or may have acted to conceal the disappearance of the victim,” Thayer said.

Blue Creek residents who asked not to be identified described Trail as a “nice enough guy” who often bought treats for Garrett’s young children at the general store in Blue Creek. But they said the home of Trail and Garrett was known as a drug house.

“There were always a lot of cars there,” said one neighbor who declined to be identified. “Sometimes there were even cars stopped out on the road.”

Thayer said he received similar reports of drug activity. He said alleged drug trafficking and the homicide show the need to restore four deputies that county commissioners recently forced him to lay off in order to balance the county budget.

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