Man pleads guilty in fire death

A man pleaded guilty Tuesday to killing a homeless amputee by setting the victim on fire as he slept next to his wheelchair in downtown Spokane last summer.

Matthew Brian Trammell, 23, was facing a single count of first-degree murder but instead entered an Alford plea to second-degree murder in connection to the June 26, 2006, death of 50-year-old Douglas Dawson.

Three of Dawson’s sisters attended the plea Tuesday before Superior Court Judge Sam Cozza. As corrections officers led Trammell away from the hearing, he looked away as two of the women glared at him.

“It’s been over a year, and it’s time to have closure,” said Lisa Nelson, of Spokane. “Bad things happen to good people.”

Another sister, Cynthia Whitney, cried as she spoke about her brother.

“Our brother had a heart of gold,” she said. “He was a transient, but he’d give you the shirt off his back.”

According to court records, Trammell and 24-year-old Sean Paul Knold had just robbed a woman at First Avenue and Washington Street at about noon on June 23, 2006. They both fled to the alley behind a building at 151 S. Washington St.

About the same time, emergency crews were alerted to a fire in the area.

When officers arrived in the alley, a fire was burning near Dawson’s midsection, including his pants, blankets and his wheelchair. He was transported to Deaconess Medical Center and later transferred to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, where he died three days later.

Officers quickly detained Knold and Trammell for the robbery. They were later questioned by major crimes detectives after a fire investigator reported that he believed the fire that injured Dawson had been intentionally set.

Knold admitted to the robbery and said he saw Dawson asleep on the ground next to his wheelchair. Knold also said he saw Trammell on the ground near Dawson but denied seeing him set the fire.

Both men ran from the scene and caught up with each other in a parking lot just east of the crime scene, according to police reports. “Trammell told him, ‘I just set that guy on fire,’ ” police records state. “Knold thought Trammell was kidding.”

Detective Marty Hill then interviewed Trammell, who initially blamed Knold for the fire, saying that Knold started it by throwing a cigarette butt at Dawson. But Trammell quickly changed his story.

“Trammell stated he was being drunk and stupid and lit the grass on fire within about a foot of the sleeping Dawson,” Hill wrote. “In one version, Trammell claimed the fire spread rapidly, and he burned his feet while trying to put it out. In a second version, Trammell claimed the fire was very small and he did stomp it out, but it must have reignited.”

Trammell’s Alford plea means that he doesn’t admit his guilt but acknowledges that he could have been convicted of murder had the case gone to trial. Cozza set his sentencing for Oct. 12 at 1:30 p.m.

Deputy Spokane County Prosecutor Rachel Sterett told Judge Cozza that she and the defense attorneys had not reached a sentencing agreement but that prosecutors would be asking for the high end of the standard sentencing range.

Trammell has no previous felony convictions. He faces between 10 and 18 years in prison, Sterett said.