Charge In Trestle Death Reduced

Fri., March 22, 1996

Associated Press

Charges have been reduced against one of five youths accused in the death of a teenager who was pushed from an abandoned railroad trestle in Bothell, the King County prosecutor’s office said.

Tyler Wheaton, 17, had been accused of second-degree murder along with the other four defendants in the death of Michael Schuerhoff, 18. Court papers say Schuerhoff was pushed from the trestle into the Sammamish Slough on Jan. 2 by Brian Schrader, 18, who was offered $30 and some marijuana by friends to do it.

In exchange for his testimony in the case, the charge against Wheaton was reduced to rendering criminal assistance, said prosecutor’s spokesman Dan Donohoe.

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