Remembering the 25 people killed in 2024 in Spokane County
In 2024, 25 people were killed in homicides in Spokane County.
Here are the victims:
January
Willie Anderson, 53, was shot and killed Jan. 24 in a South Hill apartment.
Cody M. Low, 23, will be tried for second-degree murder in April.
Low called police to report banging and stomping noises, as well as seeing two people using power tools at about 3 a.m. outside his apartment in the 3300 block of East 55th Avenue, according to court documents. When he went into his mother’s bedroom, he heard snoring and found Anderson asleep on the floor.
Low told police he pointed his gun at Anderson, his mother’s former boyfriend who she said was trying to reconcile, and told him to leave. At some point, Anderson turned and threw his hands up quickly, Low said. So he closed his eyes and shot once, striking Anderson. Low’s mother let Anderson into her bedroom through a window that night and then left the apartment.
Wesley Brenston-Studebaker, 3, was found unresponsive by his mother Jan. 31 at a north Spokane home.
The mother’s boyfriend, John L. Jones, 39, will stand trial for second-degree murder in October.
According to court records, the mother told police that Jones picked her up from work, and then they got the children. He dropped her off to grocery shop and left with the kids. Jones picked her up a while later and then dropped off her and her boys, who were sleeping, at the home in the 5900 block of North Ash Street.
After Jones unloaded the groceries and brought the sleeping boys into the house, he left in the mother’s van. Jones told her he would return in about an hour, but he never did, offering excuses for why he didn’t return, the mother said in documents.
She grew tired of waiting for Jones and decided to check on Wesley when she noticed he wasn’t breathing and was cold to the touch. The Spokane County Medical Examiner’s Office said Wesley died from blunt force injuries.
Police in Las Vegas arrested Jones, who was still driving the van.
February
Dylan McCorkle, 30, was shot in the head in the early morning hours of Feb. 2 outside a Logan Neighborhood home.
The second-degree murder trial for Gunnar M. Doughty, 33, started last week and is expected to conclude this week.
According to court documents, a witness said McCorkle confided to her that Doughty had disrespected his girlfriend over the matter of $100 that was stolen. McCorkle walked into the yard of a home on Hamilton Street and Jackson Avenue and yelled for Doughty to come outside.
The witness told police Doughty came outside to confront McClorkle and drew a pistol. McCorkle said something like, “What are you going to do, shoot me?” Doughty then fired one round, striking McCorkle in the head.
Wyatt Walker, 28, was shot Feb. 4 outside of an Airway Heights home.
A group of people confronted Devine D. Bullard, 31, that day at his Sands Mobile Home Park residence after witnesses told police Bullard waved a gun at children at Shorty Combs Park in Airway Heights, according to court documents.
As Bullard argued with the group gathered outside his mobile home, he reached for his handgun, witnesses told police. One of the men, 36-year-old Rudy G. Parsons, told police he feared for his life, so he pepper-sprayed Bullard. Bullard then reportedly fired his gun at the group as they fled from his porch. One of the gunshots struck Walker in the torso and killed him.
Bullard was initially charged with five counts of second-degree assault, but prosecutors dropped the case about a month after the shooting.
March
Nathaniel Byers, 16, was shot in the head March 8 in a Spokane Valley drug robbery.
Brendon M. McCullough, 30, and Byers went to an apartment in the 4000 block of South Bowdish Road to steal drugs from Kevin M. Heaton, according to court records. The robbery turned violent, and McCullough and Heaton fought over control of a gun. Byers, who was waiting outside in a car, ran into the apartment with a pistol to help McCullough. A gunshot went off when Byers got inside.
Heaton’s son, 29-year-old Kane M. Heaton, picked up McCullough’s gun from the floor and exchanged gunfire with Byers. Byers was shot in the head and died two days later. Kane Heaton was shot in the hand.
The younger Heaton then turned his attention to McCullough, who was still fighting with his dad, and shot McCullough, according to police.
McCullough pleaded guilty in July to robbery, assault and firearm charges, and was sentenced to more than five years in prison. Kevin Heaton, 48, pleaded guilty in October to firearm and drug charges and was sentenced to four years in prison.
Kane Heaton was later charged on suspicion of three counts of unlawful possession of a firearm stemming from the day of the shooting, but he was not arrested in connection to Byers’ death.
Thomas Reynolds, 36, was shot and killed March 22 in the Minnehaha Neighborhood.
Police found Reynolds on a sidewalk near the corner of Thor Street and Cleveland Avenue with gunshot wounds. He died soon after.
Security footage matched a vehicle description to Daniel R. Quinn, according to court records. Detectives searched Quinn’s Chevrolet Tahoe and found guns, ammunition and body armor. Quinn, 38, faces trial in April for second-degree murder.
April
Robert Abbott, 62, was reported missing April 5 by his wife, and three people have been arrested in relation to his disappearance and suspected homicide. His remains have not been located.
Richard L. Trower, 52, and Heather L. Lewis, 43, will be tried in April on suspicion of first-degree murder, and Trower’s wife, 53-year-old Teri L. Christenson, has already pleaded guilty to attempted trafficking in stolen property in connection with taking Abbott’s vehicle.
Abbott’s wife and a friend grew concerned when Abbott wouldn’t answer his home. When they searched his shop, they found blood on the floor and noted his BMW was gone. Two bullet casings were found on the property.
The Spokane County Sheriff’s Office seized the BMW for evidence April 6 at a Mead mobile home park. Investigators found enough blood in the trunk to surmise that Abbott’s body had been stored there.
Trower, who was an acquaintance of Abbott, told detectives that he and Lewis took the BMW from Abbott’s property and stopped at a cemetery trailhead parking lot on Government Way where Lewis wiped off the door handles. Trower and Lewis exchanged messages April 3 indicating Trower had returned to Abbott’s residence and was worried about someone coming down the driveway as he sat in the car. He messaged her saying he needed a place to unload the car and clean it, documents say.
Gerald Fox, 70, was killed after a woman hit him with his own truck April 9 near the Spokane International Airport.
Alyssa K.L. Bray, 28, told police in court documents she was walking on the side of the highway heading toward Airway Heights that night when Fox, whom she did not know, picked her up and offered to pay her for sex. Bray said she got in Fox’s truck, and he offered her $40.
When Fox started to walk around to the passenger door, she said she locked the doors and slid into the driver’s seat.
Bray said she “just drove him off the road” and “didn’t have to kill him,” according to documents.
She pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter and was sentenced to 7½ years in prison, where she died earlier this year.
Justin Daniel, 40, was shot three times and stabbed 48 times in his home amid an ongoing custody battle with his ex-partner, Cynthia L. Khaleel, who will be tried on suspicion of murder in April.
Daniel called deputies to his home in Mead to report Khaleel, 38, had come to the house in violation of a no-contact order. When deputies arrived, they found him dead in a pool of blood, according to court records.
Daniel had been awarded full custody of their 3-year-old child in March, but witnesses close to the family said Khaleel was “furious” about the ruling and was stalking and harassing Daniel, according to records.
Six years before Daniel’s death, a jury acquitted Khaleel of killing her adoptive 5-year-old nephew, Gary Blanton III.
A GoFundMe to raise money for Daniel’s three daughters described him as “a wonderful father who loved his girls more than anything” and fought to keep them safe.
May
Joshua Paine, 42, said to have been a loving father and husband, was on his way to work the morning of May 23 when he was shot and killed in the Garland District.
“He’s my everything,” said his wife, Leslie Paine. “I can’t believe we are missing his smile.”
Caleb N. Carder, 29, will be tried for first-degree murder in Paine’s death.
Paine, who worked at Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center, was driving to the hospital for work when a 2014 Mercedes driven by Carder blocked the front of his car, according to video footage.
During an argument, Carder is suspected of shooting Paine 12 times as Paine tried to run away. Investigators have described the killing as unprovoked.
June
David Johnson, 61, was stabbed to death in a fight June 5 at a mobile home in the West Hills Neighborhood, according to court documents.
Kelly M. Hyde, 35, is accused of second-degree murder and first-degree assault for also stabbing her mother Jacqueline Mattingly in the head 10 times. Johnson and Mattingly were married.
When firefighters responded to a medical aid call in the 5300 block of West Sunset Boulevard, they found Mattingly with 10 stab wounds to the head and her husband dead inside the mobile home, according to Spokane police.
Before the stabbing, Hyde said she got into a fight with Johnson, where he wrestled her to the floor of the trailer and covered her mouth so she couldn’t breathe. That’s when she started stabbing him, according to court records. Hyde indicated her mother came into the kitchen and attempted to intervene.
Hyde is scheduled for trial next month.
Timothy Bradburn, 68, was shot and killed June 25 inside his Northwest Spokane home after returning from Hawaii, according to court documents.
Alyssa M. Bradburn, 32, admitted to planning and shooting her father because she said he would beat her and her dogs, she told police. No criminal records exist in Spokane County Superior Court or state court for Timothy Bradburn.
She waited for him to walk inside the home in the 5600 block of North Cochran Street and shot him in the chest and in the head, according to police.
She is scheduled to be tried for first-degree murder this year.
Anthony Brown, 27, was shot and killed June 25 outside the Serrano South apartments on East Wedgewood Avenue.
Police arrested Wyatt F. Comer, 24, who faces trial for second-degree murder.
Brown and a group of friends went to an acquaintance’s apartment to check on it while the tenant was out of town, according to court documents. Brown couldn’t get into the apartment with the key, but he heard a man’s voice inside, so he knocked on the door and told them to leave.
A woman told police the door then flew open and Brown pushed his way inside, according to court records. A witness heard two or three gunshots and watched a man and a woman run out of the apartment.
According to court records, Comer told his family that he shot someone.
July
Maria Kapustin, 19, was killed in a possible drive-by shooting July 7 in the North Hill Neighborhood.
Officers responded to the shooting at about 1:30 a.m. in the 1300 block of West Courtland Avenue and found Kapustin with a gunshot wound. She died at the scene.
Loved ones gathered later that day at the site of her death and set up a memorial on the grassy ridge overlooking the Emerson/Garfield Neighborhood.
“She’s the strongest, most beautiful, independent, sweetest girl ever, and had nothing to do with a situation like that,” said Ralph Artiaga, Kapustin’s boyfriend.
Spokane police said charges are pending against a man detectives identified as the suspect in the shooting, but they declined to release his name.
Jackie Wessels, 40, was shot several times at her home in the 2500 block of North Hamilton Street. The shooting stemmed from a dispute over the sale of a motorcycle, documents say.
Travis R. Johnson, 41, admitted to shooting her, tossing the gun into a pond and asking his girlfriend whether she would leave for Costa Rica with him, according to the girlfriend in court documents.
Wessels’ son found Wessels unresponsive and lying in a pool of blood the morning of July 21 at her residence, according to court records.
Johnson has been in the Kootenai County Jail since July 29 after he was arrested in Coeur d’Alene on suspicion of several drug charges. Johnson faces second-degree murder for Wessels’ death.
Daji Loeak, 5 months, was shaken, slapped and thrown on July 21 at a Spokane Valley apartment in the 12000 block of East Mansfield Avenue.
The baby was hospitalized with a brain bleed and died a few days later from his injuries, according to the Spokane Valley Police Department.
Amlyann Harry, 23, was charged on suspicion of second-degree murder, but a judge ruled last month Harry lacked the mental competency to participate in legal proceedings, and as a result, dismissed the case and ordered a civil commitment evaluation.
Daji died from blunt force injuries, according to the Spokane County Medical Examiner’s Office.
August
Andrew Buonocore, 23, was shot and killed Aug. 18 while stopped with his girlfriend at a red light in Millwood.
Marc G. Rinard, 44, will be tried for second-degree murder and first-degree assault.
Police said Buonocore stopped at Trent Avenue and Argonne Road, and Rinard. A registered nurse who has since had his nurse’s license suspended, pulled his truck to the passenger side of the car.
Buonocore’s girlfriend, who was uninjured, told police Rinard started yelling and honking his horn at her and her boyfriend, documents say. She said Rinard rolled down the window of his pickup, pointed a pistol at the couple and fired, striking Buonocore in his upper torso.
The girlfriend told police she did not know Rinard, nor did she know why he shot at her and her boyfriend.
October
Eric Lintner, 48, died after he and his roommate got into a fight about rent money Oct. 4 at the Hillyard residence they rented.
Matthew D. Johnson, 36, was booked into the Spokane County Jail on suspicion of first-degree manslaughter, but was released the next day because prosecutors did not file charges, said Preston McCollam, Spokane County chief criminal deputy prosecutor.
Lintner died from the combined effects of exertion during a physical altercation, asphyxial injuries and methamphetamine toxicity, according to the Spokane County Medical Examiner’s Office. It ruled the death a homicide.
.
William McCreight, 53, was shot and killed Oct. 12 in a Millwood Safeway parking lot in a possible drug deal gone wrong.
Johnathan M. Bryman, 43, was charged on suspicion of second-degree murder, but that charge was later dropped because Bryman acted in self-defense, according to McCollam.
McCollam said text messages recovered from McCreight’s cellphone indicated he was trying to solicit others to help him rob Bryman. McCreight was also armed with a realistic-looking handgun, identified as a silver BB gun in court documents, and a “makeshift knife” strapped to his wrist.
Bryman, a convicted felon, pleaded guilty to unlawful possession of a firearm related to the shooting.
John Larue, 51, was stabbed in a fight with his roommate Oct. 17 inside a West Central Spokane residence.
Police found Larue, who was stabbed in the chest, lying on the floor, and Kevin Deem, who had blood covering his upper body, standing over him. Police wrote Deem appeared to have stab wounds to his back left shoulder.
A woman who called 911 told police she was there to visit Deem.
She was with Deem in his room when Larue allegedly barged inside and attacked him.
Deem called out for her help and said Larue was stabbing him and to call 911, she told police. She said Deem defended himself by grabbing Larue’s arms to control them and prevent being stabbed further.
Deem then placed Larue into a “sleeper hold” to defend himself, she told police.
Police ruled Deem acted in self-defense and was not charged with a crime.
Robert Eiffert, 61, was stabbed with a kitchen knife Oct. 22 at an East Central Spokane apartment, and his son admitted the killing to loved ones before he was arrested, police say.
Damian C. Eiffert, 39, faces second-degree murder and is set for trial in April.
He called his mother after the killing and said he could not stand his dad anymore and stabbed him to death, the mother told police.
Lamar Robertson, 37, was stabbed multiple times in the torso Oct. 29 in an alley behind a house in the 3700 block of East First Avenue following an argument over a truck, according to court documents.
Orlando Jaramillo, 34, was arrested on suspicion of second-degree murder and is awaiting trial next month.
Court records say Robertson and his girlfriend went to the area to repossess a truck that they had given a man in exchange for a car. The couple realized the car was faulty, and the man who gave it to them agreed to give the truck back, records say. The man and his brother, identified as Jaramillo, approached Robertson in the alley and began fighting with him over owed money.
Jaramillo was holding a hunting knife pointed outward, documents say. At some point, Robertson fell to the ground, and his girlfriend noticed he was not moving. He was loaded into a passerby’s car and taken to a hospital, where he died.
November
Brandon Hoppman, 35, was shot in the early morning hours of Nov. 2 outside a Hillyard bar the alleged shooter owns, according to court documents.
Police found Hoppman lying on a bench with a gunshot wound to his stomach at Queen Avenue and Greene Street.
He died at the hospital six days after the shooting.
Richard S. Tannehill, 42, was charged on suspicion of first-degree assault, but prosecutors dropped the charge last month because they are waiting for the medical examiner’s report to determine appropriate charges, court records show.
Donald Gunstrom, 71, may have been the victim of a murder-for-hire over the affections of a prostitute when he was shot and killed Nov. 9 in the Chief Garry Park Neighborhood, according to court documents.
Police said a 59-year-old shooting suspect then killed himself in Eastern Montana. The Spokane shooting happened the morning of Nov. 9 near the area of Lacey Street and Riverton Avenue.
Officers found Gunstrom dead in the road, according to search warrant documents. He had been shot multiple times in the chest, face and head. He also had injuries consistent with being struck or dragged by a vehicle.
Police disclosed in court documents the suspect was found dead two days after the Spokane shooting at Pompeys Pillar National Monument, about 32 miles east of Billings.
Javier Chavez, 45, was stabbed Nov. 10 outside the former Hope House in downtown Spokane.
Anthony L. Chastain, 50, was charged on suspicion of second-degree murder and is awaiting trial next month.
Victor Garcia, Chavez’s 17-year-old nephew, described his uncle as a caring man who liked to play handball and loved cars. He liked to make jokes, but was serious when he needed to be.
Prosecutors said the stabbing appeared to be the result of an ongoing fight over a woman they both dated.
Police detained Chastain, who allegedly had a large knife at his feet. According to court records, he told investigators: “It was me.”