Beating suspect has violent past
The 17-year-old boy arrested in Tuesday’s attack on a man who was trying to help a seriously injured girl has an extensive and violent criminal history.
The suspect, Spokane resident David Allan Ellis, agreed Wednesday to remain in the Spokane County Juvenile Detention Center on suspicion of second-degree assault until formal charges are filed in the beating of the Good Samaritan, 42-year-old Robert M. Dean.
Ellis was awaiting trial in Spokane County Juvenile Court on charges of obstructing police, being a minor in possession of alcohol and second-degree trespass when he was arrested Tuesday morning. In the earlier case, a police officer reported Ellis had been drinking and was uncooperative when the officer broke up a fight between Ellis and another boy on April 30.
After his arrest in April, Ellis was released to the custody of his mother, Denise Ellis, and an uncle, Ray Sprayberry.
Court records don’t say what relationship David Ellis may have with 19-year-old Dennis Richard Sprayberry III, whom police want to question in connection with Tuesday’s attack on Dean. Police say Ellis and Sprayberry were passengers in the Ford Explorer from which the injured girl fell, even though Ellis was under court order to have no contact with Sprayberry.
According to court documents, Ellis admitted to police that he argued with Dean when Dean insisted that a 17-year-old girl who fell off a moving vehicle should be taken to a hospital. Ellis claimed Dean struck him first, and then Ellis struck Dean on the side of the head with a 22-ounce beer bottle he took away from Dean.
Police say Ellis had the bottle all along. They say Ellis attacked Dean because Ellis and others in the Ford Explorer didn’t want to take the girl to a hospital. Ellis admitted he and others in the car had been drinking 22-ounce bottles of Old English beer before the accident, according to a court document.
Dean had been walking in the area of Helena and DeSmet when the girl fell off the roof of the Explorer, which was northbound on Helena about 2 a.m. The girl and a teenage boy had climbed onto the roof after leaving a party, and the girl fell off when the vehicle rounded a corner, police said.
She hit her head on the pavement and suffered internal injuries, including a cerebral hemorrhage that required surgery. Her hospitalization was delayed for two hours while her companions tried to treat her themselves after Dean was incapacitated.
Police spokesman Dick Cottam said the girl remained hospitalized in serious but stable condition Wednesday night.
A police affidavit says the girl’s companions at first refused to let Dean check her condition. Then, when he appeared to have convinced them she needed to go to a hospital, they let him help load her into their vehicle. But an argument broke out when the companions again talked about not taking her to a hospital.
Police said Dean told them he was suddenly punched on the left side of the head, and he tried to fight off two or three of the vehicle occupants. He was knocked to the ground when one of the youths – allegedly Ellis – struck him above his left eye with a beer bottle. Then several of the suspects punched and kicked him repeatedly, police reported.
Dean suffered a severe bruise and cut above his eye, as well as numerous other bruises and scrapes. He could not be located for comment Wednesday.
Ellis was arrested at Sacred Heart Medical Center about two hours later. Officers said he had blood on his shirt and appeared to have been in a fight.
Dennis Sprayberry is the only other occupant of the Explorer who has been publicly identified. A police spokesman said Sprayberry was wanted for questioning, but was not considered a suspect.
This isn’t the first time Sprayberry and Ellis have been involved in the same police investigation.
Court records show Ellis was driving a stolen Pontiac Firebird and Sprayberry was driving a stolen Suzuki SUV that a witness said were being driven recklessly, apparently playing “tag,” in the Liberty Lake area on April 26, 2002. A state trooper pursued both the speeding vehicles, and Ellis crashed. The trooper said Ellis appeared to have been drinking.
Ellis was arrested three days later when he was released from a hospital. Sprayberry was later arrested, as well, and both were convicted of crimes relating to the incident.
Both Ellis and Sprayberry have extensive criminal histories.
Ellis’ convictions, dating from January 2002, when he was 13, include fourth-degree assault, attempting to elude police, first-degree theft, first-degree trespass and being a minor in possession of alcohol. As part of plea bargains in two of his cases, charges of fourth-degree assault and second-degree burglary were dismissed.
Court records say Ellis’s first-degree theft conviction in October 2002 involved a purse-snatching in which he knocked a woman into her vehicle and then onto the ground. He was sentenced to 15 to 36 weeks in a state juvenile rehabilitation center, and a judge directed state juvenile authorities not to house Ellis with Sprayberry.
Sprayberry’s record includes resisting arrest, two convictions for possession of stolen property, third-degree theft, second-degree burglary, car theft and custodial assault.