Pierce County woman arrested in ‘78 death

SEATTLE – More than 28 years after a Seattle auto mechanic was gunned down in what cold-case investigators say was a contract killing, a 51-year-old woman has been arrested.

Leroy Grant, 36, was shot at close range, once in the back of the head and twice in the chest. His body was discovered on a Maple Valley road on Jan. 26, 1978.

On Friday, Karen L. Martin, of Pierce County, was booked into King County Jail. Detectives obtained information that Martin was hired by a middleman allegedly tied to organized crime and prostitution. They believe Martin was to be paid $10,000 for Grant’s killing, King County Sheriff’s spokesman Sgt. John Urquhart said.

Investigators at the time weren’t told that in 1979 Martin implicated herself in Grant’s death after telling federal prosecutors she had information on organized crime in the Seattle area, Urquhart said.

Her arrest is the third in the past year that investigators believe may be related to organized crime and the Seattle strip-club industry.

Grant’s wife had died of a heart ailment in 1977, and he was raising three children. At the time of his death, Grant came into money “he wasn’t supposed to have,” Urquhart said, without elaborating.

On the pretense of restoring a Corvette, Martin lured Grant to a remote area, Urquhart said. Grant was last seen at the Cascade Vista Lounge in Renton. Detectives later found his car at a restaurant in another part of South King County.

Federal prosecutors offered Martin, whose last name was then Cox, immunity in exchange for possible testimony to a grand jury.

Former assistant U.S. Attorney J. Ronald Sim, now a criminal defense attorney in Seattle, was one of the lead prosecutors overseeing a lengthy grand jury investigation of Seattle strip-club owner Frank Colacurcio Sr.

Martin was never called as a witness during Colacurcio’s trial, Sim said. But Colacurcio was eventually convicted for failing to pay taxes on cash skimmed from two strip clubs in King County.

Sim said he recalled Martin offering information about criminal activity but couldn’t remember exactly what she told him, including whether she provided information about Colacurcio.

Sim said he didn’t tell King County investigators or prosecutors about Martin’s statements to him about Grant’s killing because of the immunity offer.

“If somebody gives you something under grant of immunity, you’re promising not to tell anybody,” Sim said.

Investigators have focused on unsolved homicides possibly linked to associates of Colacurcio since 2003, when he and his son, Frank Colacurcio Jr., were seeking Seattle City Council approval to expand parking for Rick’s, a Lake City strip club operated by Frank Colacurcio Jr. Their associates were found to have contributed as much as $50,000 to three council candidates.

Both Colacurcios were charged with illegally funneling contributions through others to avoid campaign-contribution limits, but the case was dismissed on technical grounds.

Prosecutors last week asked the state Supreme Court to reinstate the charges.

Frank Colacurcio Sr. has not been implicated in any of the cold cases brought by the task force, and his son was in his teens when the killings occurred.

In February, investigators arrested James B. Braman Jr. in the 1975 killings of South End strip-club owner Frank “Sharkey” Hinkley and his fiancee, Barbara Rosenfield, at the Bear Cave near Boeing Field. The killings came during a turf battle among strip-club owners in King County.

Braman died of a drug overdose before he could be tried.

Last month, the task force arrested Gary Isaacs in the 1975 killing of a Yakima County restaurant owner, Everett “Fritz” Fretland, who had refused to sell his Yakima bar to a strip-club operator in that city.