Second Arrest In Park Killing Man Believed To Have Set Up Fateful Meeting Turns Himself In

Police have arrested the man they believe set up a meeting where a Spokane resident was beaten to death with a baseball bat.

Curtis Strange was booked into the county jail on suspicion of first-degree murder after he surrendered to police Tuesday afternoon. He is being held on a $500,000 cash-only bond.

The 21-year-old Spokane resident admitted to asking Timothy Cowen to meet him in Mission Park in the predawn hours of Aug. 12, a police investigator wrote in an affidavit.

Strange told Detective George Benavidez that he and an accomplice, Nathaniel Roberts, planned to take $20 from Cowen.

Strange believed Cowen, 23, had stolen that amount of money from Strange’s aunt sometime before, Benavidez wrote in an affidavit.

Roberts, 17, told detectives the pair planned to teach Cowen “a lesson for stealing,” Benavidez said.

When Cowen arrived at the park on his bicycle, Roberts hit him in the head seven times with a baseball bat, according to court records.

Strange and Roberts then stole the victim’s wallet, from which they took $5, according to police. They then threw the wallet into the nearby Spokane River, Benavidez said.

The pair took the $5 to Strange’s aunt, leaving Cowen for dead, the affidavit states.

A city parks worker found the unconscious and bloody victim between two tennis courts several hours later. Cowen died at a local hospital that afternoon.

Strange was convicted of third-degree theft two years ago and also has an arrest for marijuana possession.

Roberts was arrested Sunday on suspicion of first-degree murder after residents of Spokane’s Logan neighborhood told police where to find him. He also is being held on a $500,000 cash-only bond.

Prosecutors will try him as an adult.