Rape suspect held on bond of $500,000

A Spokane man was ordered held on a $500,000 bond Tuesday, after he was charged with kidnapping, assaulting, raping and repeatedly stabbing his former girlfriend on Sunday.

Michael Lee West Jr., 27, appeared before District Court Judge Annette Plese.

West was charged late Monday with first-degree assault. On Tuesday, Deputy Spokane County Prosecutor Kelly Fitzgerald added the charges of first-degree rape and first-degree kidnapping in connection with the same incident.

“At this point, we have not determined what the extent of the charges will be,” Fitzgerald said. “There is an ongoing investigation.”

West answered only “yes” or “no” to Judge Plese’s questions. Fitzgerald said West’s record includes six felony convictions, including three for assault. He also has 11 misdemeanor convictions as an adult, several for domestic violence, Fitzgerald said.

Plese noted that West’s record also includes 19 failures to appear to court.

“I do consider you a flight risk and a potential danger to the community,” Plese said, before setting the bond at $500,000. Plese also ordered West to have no contact with the victim in this case.

According to court documents, West went to his former girlfriend’s house at 1717 E. 12th Ave. at about 12:45 a.m. Sunday with a knife.

“The defendant taped the victim’s hands behind her back and used electrical cord to tie the victim’s legs together to prevent her from running away,” Spokane Police Detective Curt Kendall wrote in his report. “Prior to the defendant using the electrical cord to tie the victim’s legs together, the defendant sexually assaulted the victim.”

During the ordeal, which lasted until 6:30 a.m., the 25-year-old woman was repeatedly assaulted and stabbed, Kendall wrote.

“The defendant stabbed the victim in the face, chest, back and arms with a knife,” Kendall wrote in court records. “The stab wounds were likely to produce great bodily harm or death.”

The woman was initially listed in critical condition at Sacred Heart Medical Center. But she was upgraded Monday to satisfactory condition, said police spokesman Dick Cottam.

After the assault, the woman escaped and called 911.

Later Sunday, police officers found West in a second-floor storage area at 2108 E. First Ave. He was arrested on a pending arrest warrant for escape March 20 from the Brownstone Work Release Center in Spokane.

West had been at that facility, operated by the Washington state Department of Corrections, since January. He was scheduled to be released from custody June 11, after serving more than a year for a third-degree assault conviction.

In that case, West pleaded guilty to beating a man with a broom handle on Dec.12, 2002. Authorities originally charged West with first-degree robbery, but he pleaded guilty to the lesser charge.

In January 2000, West pleaded guilty to slamming a woman’s head against a washer in a local Laundromat. That woman suffered a gash on her head and a broken jaw.

Fitzgerald said she will explore whether West’s criminal record and recent charges will qualify under the “three-strikes rule.” In those cases, suspects who are convicted of three separate violent felonies are automatically sent to prison for life.

However, third-degree assault – for which West has three prior convictions – does not qualify as a three-strikes offense, Fitzgerald said.