Police arrest third suspect in Apple Tree Inn homicide; one suspect killed by police is identified

A King County police chase that ended in a crash led to the arrests of a couple suspected to have helped kill a man at a north Spokane motel over the weekend.

Adam Stallings, 41, was stabbed to death Sunday at the Apple Tree Inn, 9508 N. Division St. Police enforcement responded to reports of screaming inside one of the rooms and entered to find Stallings dead.

On Wednesday night, police booked 24-year-old Elizabeth A. Wahlund into the Spokane County Jail, marking the third person investigators believe was involved in Stallings’ death.

Wahlund and her boyfriend, 27-year-old Johnathan J. Woodcock, were both apprehended Tuesday in King County after a brief car chase, court records say. Woodcock was also booked Wednesday into the Spokane County Jail.

Another person investigators believe was involved in the stabbing of Stallings was shot and killed by police earlier Wednesday on West Carlisle Avenue near Audubon Elementary School after a nearly three-hour standoff. The Spokane County Medical Examiner’s Office identified him as 47-year-old Richard Sheppard.

Officers saw Sheppard, armed with what investigators say was a loaded 12-gauge shotgun, moving in and out of garage on the property during the standoff, according to a news release Friday from the Spokane Independent Investigative Response Team, which is investigating the shooting. At about 1:45 a.m., Sheppard ran and jumped two neighboring backyard fences where officers on the perimeter confronted him. Officers fired their weapons and killed Sheppard.

Spokane police on Friday identified Det. Taylor Johnson, Det. Nathan Donaldson and Officer Daniel Valencia as the three officers who fired their weapons. The officers will be placed on administrative leave, per standard protocol.

The medical examiner’s office said Sheppard died of gunshot wounds of the torso and extremities.

Investigators recovered a loaded 12-gauge shotgun on the ground near Sheppard, according to the release. They also found and seized additional ammunition from his clothing.

Records show a Spokane County jury convicted Sheppard in 2001 of first-degree manslaughter in the death of 22-year-old Seth Carter. Sheppard shot and killed Carter with a shotgun after playing with it and pointing it around the room at a party at Sheppard’s residence.

Prosecutors allege that Wahlund, Woodcock and another man pulled up to the Apple Tree Inn to buy drugs from someone in one of the rooms, according to court records. Wahlund waited in the truck.

A friend of Stallings who was staying with him at the motel told police she was in the shower when she heard a commotion outside the bathroom. She looked outside the bathroom door and saw two males, one armed with a shotgun, attacking Stallings, who was bleeding.

Video footage shows two men in masks, one believed to be Woodcock, fleeing the Apple Tree Inn and getting in the truck as it drove from the scene, according to court records. Wahlund told Spokane police during an interview that the man said they messed with the man in the motel room “because of the price” and the man had blood on his face and knuckles.

Wahlund and Woodcock were reportedly living in his truck. The two share an infant child currently in foster care.

During one of Wahlund’s police interviews, a detective asked her, “Do you want your kid to grow up with no parents?”

She began to cry and said she didn’t know they were going to kill him, according to court records. Wahlund told police they dropped off one man at the Ramada Inn, but police couldn’t corroborate her statement. She said the other two men – although police only observed three people in the truck – were dropped off at a house near Planet Fitness on the North Side.

According to court records, the truck Wahland and Woodcock were driving was captured on Flock cameras driving to the west side of the state. King County Sheriff’s deputies were asked to assist Spokane police in locating the couple, the office said in an email to reporters. Deputies found the vehicle, initiated a pursuit and deployed spike strips. The strips caused the truck to turn left, lose control and crash at an intersection in Kent.

Spokane police wrote in court records they believe Wahlund and Woodcock were being untruthful during their interviews because their stories were inconsistent. Investigators also believe the planning, preparation and wearing of masks show an “intention” to commit a crime, court records say.

Woodcock and Wahlund both appeared this week in Spokane County Superior Court on second-degree murder charges and remained in jail Friday in lieu of $1 million bonds. They are both set for arraignments Tuesday.