Arrow-right Camera
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Victim in Friday homicide at West Wynn motel identified

From staff reports

The man fatally stabbed at the West Wynn Motel last week was 22-year-old Robert Luis Hebert, the Spokane County Medical Examiner’s office said in a news release Monday.

Hebert was stabbed in the chest Friday afternoon, police said Friday. Officers provided first aid at the scene, but Hebert died of his injuries at a local hospital.

Witnesses to the stabbing told police Hebert was hanging out in a friend’s motel room when a man entered, looking angry, court documents say. The man charged Hebert and the two got into a fight before the man pulled out a knife and stabbed him in the chest, court documents say.

Police arrested 33-year-old Derrick G. Bonato shortly after. He has been charged with second-degree murder and remains in jail in lieu of $1 million bail.

Bonato told officers a different story, court documents say. He said he had been messaging one of the women in the room on Facebook and was hoping to have an “intimate relationship” with her. But when he entered the room, he said two men immediately attacked him and beat him with fists and an object. He was unable to describe the men, court documents say.

Court documents say a man and woman admitted to driving Bonato to the motel shortly before the stabbing. When officers arrested him, Bonato had blood on his face and the back of his sweatshirt, court documents say.