A day after dodging murder rap, suspect charged in another case

A day after a jury said it couldn’t decide whether Stafone Fuentes was guilty of attempted murder, prosecutors appear to have taken matters into their own hands.

On Thursday, the 33-year-old with an extensive criminal history was charged with first-degree murder in a case that hasn’t turned up a new suspect in five years. The state says it now believes Fuentes is the man responsible for shooting then-26-year-old Julian Morrison in September 2013 outside the shuttered music venue The Hop.

The filing comes just one day after a judge ordered a mistrial in a separate case from 2014, in which Fuentes was accused of shooting a man outside another downtown music venue in early 2013. With Fuentes already behind bars serving time on a federal drug conviction, Superior Court Judge James Triplet set bond Thursday at $1 million.

With the newest charge, Fuentes is now in the middle of a murder case that has a history of losing suspects. A month after the September 2013 deadly shooting, prosecutors elected to drop all charges against another suspect, Kalen Bedford. Fuentes’ cousin, Carlos Fuentes, originally charged with murder, eventually pleaded guilty to second-degree assault and was sentenced to a year in prison.

Now Fuentes is charged. According to court records, there are multiple witnesses who place Fuentes at the music venue at the time of the shooting, and one witness who outright saw him shoot Morrison, but initially “did not come forward with this information because she was scared for her life.”

From the beginning, investigators theorized the shooting was over a dispute between two rival gangs – the Murder One Crips and Deuce Ave Crips. Unnamed witnesses told police they saw Carlos Fuentes and Morrison bump into each other while at the club and, at about midnight, saw Bedford take a gun from a parked car and shoot Morrison multiple times, including after he had already fallen to the ground.

Carlos Fuentes, meanwhile, was witnessed shooting his gun into the air. A total of 14 shell casings were found, according to court documents. The two men were arrested within six hours of the crime.

According to new charging documents, witnesses interviewed by police between when the shooting took place and now make several mentions of “Sticcs” – Fuentes’ gang name. One witness said she overheard a phone conversation between Bedord and Carlos Fuentes, where they asked Sticcs to “bring your things.” She later heard one of the men say they could not believe “cuz shot and killed him.”

Witnesses also placed a murder weapon in Stafone Fuentes’ possession, according to court records. One witness said he was home when Fuentes came over and said he “needed to get rid of the gun.” The man told investigators he watched Fuentes break the firearm into two pieces and throw it off the Harvard Bridge in Liberty Lake.

Another man came to police in November 2015 saying he found the gun about 20 yards east of the bridge after searches of the river by the police department came up empty.

Deputy Travis Smith with the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office gathered the Sig Sauer 9mm handgun from the witness and discovered it was registered to one of Fuentes’ friends.

Court documents say the Washington State Crime Lab tested the spent casings and determined the Sig Sauer model of firearm was a match. They were unable to test the Sig Sauer found in the river due to rust.

Fuentes has a history of run-ins with area law enforcement. In 2014, he was charged twice with felony drug possession, but in each case, the charges were dropped.

In 2012, his attorney successfully argued his innocence in a murder case. Fuentes was accused of shooting a man in the chest outside a Quality Inn motel in downtown Spokane.

Nine months after he was arrested, a jury found Fuentes not guilty of all charges, which included second-degree murder and unlawful possession of a firearm.

Then in 2014, Fuentes was arrested and charged with the attempted murder of a man outside the Knitting Factory in February 2013. Police say Fuentes is responsible for firing a .38-caliber round that struck a man sitting in a car near the music venue. The shooting happened during a fight in the parking lot.

It took more than two years for the case to go to trial on Jan. 16 of this year. On Wednesday, a jury returned to Superior Court Judge Annette Plese in a deadlock.

“The jury is irreconcilability deadlocked with regard to the charge of attempted murder,” the lead juror wrote in court documents. “Do we need to vote on assault charges?”

Then, minutes later, “After thought and thoughtful deliberation, the jury is hopelessly deadlocked concerning all charges.” Plese declared a mistrial soon after.

Richard Wall, Fuentes’ attorney on the case, said he was satisfied to see half the jurors agreed his client was innocent, but disappointed they didn’t acquit.

“We intend to retry it and we expect not guilty,” he said. “That’s what it should be.”

Fuentes is currently serving time for a federal drug possession case in which he pleaded guilty. He was one of 39 defendants arrested on a federal drug sting in 2014, though Wall said he pleaded guilty to charges stemming from a separate federal drug raid. He was sentenced to 15 years.