Charge: Drug addiction may have fueled Marymoor Park assault

Caption

Prosecutors filed a charge Wednesday against a man accused of a “brutal and merciless” Marymoor Park assault in August.

Prosecutors finally filed a charge Wednesday against a man accused of a brutal Marymoor Park assault in August.

However, he’s at Western State Hospital in Steilacoom, receiving treatment after being declared not competent to stand trial for alleged crimes in Thurston County.

The parents of Charles Raymond Stockwell, 33, told authorities their son descended into drug addiction after a tree-trimming accident a few years ago. Since then, they say, he has switched from pain pills to methamphetamine and heroin, and developed a violent temper.

Stockwell is now charged with first-degree assault in connection with the August attack, in which a woman was punched, strangled and had her elbow dislocated while she was walking her dog. Investigators could not find a DNA match for the possible attacker until four months later.

The assault occurred the evening of Aug. 5. The 42-year-old victim decided to walk her dog at the park about 6:45 p.m., reports indicate. When she reached the area of the bike trail near Northeast 51st Street and West Lake Sammamish Parkway, a man jumped out of some bushes, grabbed her arms and said, “I’m hungry,” according to the King County Sheriff’s Office.

The woman pushed him off and yelled at him, thinking she was about to walk away from the confrontation, she told detectives. Yet, when she looked back, she could see him start to rush at her. The man allegedly lifted her off her feet and threw her in a grassy area near the bike path, where he punched her in the face. He also reportedly tried to strangle her by pushing his thumbs into her throat.

When the woman asked the man why he was attacking her, he reportedly responded that he “had” to and was going to kill her. The woman said she thought she was about to be raped and killed.

She scratched the assailant’s face, but he twisted her arm, popped her elbow out of its socket and then pulled out a shoelace and used it to strangle her, according to Sheriff’s Office reports. The woman claimed she began to lose consciousness but dug her fingers beneath the shoelace enough so she could yell for help. At that point, a passerby asked if everything was OK, prompting the attacker to run away, leaving his shoes behind.

Redmond police found the woman seated in the tall grass, her face bloody and swollen and her left arm limp at her side. Medics took her to Overlake Hospital for treatment. There, the shoelace used to strangle her was pulled from her hair, reports say.

Doctors told the woman her elbow was dislocated and she had a broken bone in her face. She also required stitches in her lip.

Dog trackers failed to yield hard leads and DNA testing on the shoes and shoelace did not yield any matches in the first few months after the attack. However, a routine search of the state DNA database in December yielded a match from the shoelace: Stockwell.

Detectives learned that Stockwell was then detained in Thurston County Jail for a residential burglary in Tumwater and a subsequent assault of a corrections officer.

Speaking with investigators, Stockwell’s parents explained their son’s descent into harder drugs after the tree-trimming accident led to surgery on his leg. His mother told police she was afraid of him.

Stockwell reportedly wanted to go to Seattle the weekend of Aug. 6-7 for Seafair. His father took him to the Port Orchard foot ferry Aug. 4, which he would use to travel to Bremerton and then take the ferry to Seattle, reports indicate. Stockwell reportedly wore a pair of white tennis shoes — the ones that were left in Marymoor Park after the victim was beaten.

Stockwell’s mother told detectives that she got a call from her son a few days after he left, saying he loved her and would be home soon — but she did not hear from him again until Aug. 8, when he called from the Thurston County Jail.

After that, Stockwell’s attorney questioned his mental competency to stand trial. He was found incompetent by a psychologist in October and on Dec. 16 was taken to Western State Hospital, where he has remained since. Another assessment in January found he was still unable to stand trial. Doctors reported Stockwell has refused to take medication that would help his condition improve, according to court documents.

King County Superior Court set Stockwell’s bail at $1 million should he be sent to King County to face the assault charge.

Our editors found this article on this site using Google and regenerated it for our readers.