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Murder charge refiled against psychiatric hospital escapee Anthony Garver

This undated file photo provided by the Lakewood Police Department shows Anthony Garver. Garver escaped from a Washington state psychiatric hospital on April 6, 2016, where he was held after being found too mentally ill to face charges that he tortured a woman to death. (Lakewood Police Department / Associated Press)
Staff and wire reports

EVERETT – Prosecutors have filed another murder charge against a man who broke out of Washington state’s largest mental hospital last year after an initial murder charge was dropped when doctors determined he was too mentally ill to stand trial.

The Daily Herald reported that Deputy Prosecutor Matt Hunter said Wednesday he filed the new charge after learning Anthony Garver could soon be released from jail.

Hunter said the Federal Bureau of Prisons planned to give Garver credit for time served on charges related to the escape and other crimes.

Garver was held at Western State Hospital in Lakewood after being accused of torturing a 20-year-old woman to death. He was the subject of a two-day manhunt in Spokane County in April after he escaped from Western State Hospital.

Hunter said he refiled the charge based on Garver’s competency proceedings last month, when a judge said Garver was malingering to avoid prosecution.

Garver, who has a lengthy history of escape and has been the subject of previous manhunts, has a 2006 conviction for possession of ammunition by a person previously committed to a mental institution. He also made threats to blow up a Department of Social and Health Services office in north Spokane and to detonate a bomb at a public event.

When he was released from prison in 2013, he failed to check in with his probation officer and a warrant was issued for his arrest. A few weeks after his release, he was accused of killing 20-year-old Phillipa S. Evans-Lopez in Snohomish County. His DNA was reportedly found on the electrical cords used to bind the woman, according to court documents.

The murder charge was dismissed without prejudice when Garver was declared incompetent to stand trial and civilly committed to Western State Hospital.