advertising
Link to jump to start of content The Seattle Times Company Jobs Autos Homes Rentals NWsource Classifieds seattletimes.com
The Seattle Times Local news
Traffic | Weather | Your account Movies | Restaurants | Today's events

Thursday, September 29, 2005 - Page updated at 12:00 AM

Local Digest

Salesman charged with raping woman

Des Moines

Prosecutors have charged a 27-year-old door-to-door magazine salesman with second-degree rape in an alleged assault on a severely disabled woman in Des Moines.

Police and prosecutors say Raymond H. Moultrie, a transient whose listed addresses are numerous hotels on Pacific Highway South, knocked on the door of a 28-year-old woman with Down syndrome on Sunday in an apparent attempt to sell magazines.

Charging documents filed in King County Superior Court contend that Moultrie sexually assaulted the woman, who has the mental capacity of a grade-school child and is incapable of giving consent.

Moultrie, who has a criminal history in at least four states, is being held in lieu of $750,000 bail and is scheduled to be arraigned in the Regional Justice Center in Kent on Oct. 10.

Seattle

Man, 21, charged in drive-by shooting

King County prosecutors charged Francisco Figueroa-Cook with drive-by shooting and first-degree assault yesterday in connection with last week's shootout with police outside a popular Belltown bar.

Figueroa-Cook, 21, of Seattle, is accused of firing six rounds from a handgun early Friday while speeding up Blanchard Street on a motorcycle.

An hour before the shooting, Figueroa-Cook had been involved in a fight at Belltown Billiards and was thrown out of the bar, charging papers say.

The papers say he returned around 2 a.m. and shot at bar patrons and officers who were in the area; two officers fired back, and Figueroa-Cook was struck in the thigh before crashing into a car.

A 19-year-old woman, an au pair from Germany, was struck by a bullet that police think came from Figueroa-Cook's gun, charging papers say.

advertising
The woman was in satisfactory condition at Harborview Medical Center, a hospital spokeswoman said.

Seattle police spokeswoman Debra Brown yesterday identified the two officers as Francis Estrada, an 11-year veteran, and Greg Neubert, who has been on the force 13 years.

Both are on administrative leave, as is routine.

Renton

Man hit by car in Las Vegas dies

A 60-year-old Renton man died yesterday from injuries he received a week ago when a stolen car plowed into pedestrians on the crowded Las Vegas Strip, killing two other people.

The Renton man, Richard Bradford, died at University Medical Center in Las Vegas, where a spokeswoman said he developed sudden complications.

A prosecutor said a third charge of murder would be filed against the driver in the Sept. 21 crash.

Stephen M. Ressa, 27, is accused of intentionally steering over the curb and accelerating along the sidewalk in front of the Paris Las Vegas and Bally's hotel-casinos.

Ressa, of Rialto, Calif., already faces two murder counts in the deaths of two California men, as well as 12 attempted-murder charges, 12 counts of battery with a deadly weapon, and a charge of possession of a stolen car.

He faces life in prison without the possibility of parole if convicted.

Clark County District Attorney David Roger has said he may seek the death penalty.

Ressa is due in court Oct. 26. He is being held without bail pending a psychological evaluation sought by his lawyer.

Ressa told police he became angry at people he believed were staring at him like they were "demons" and concealing guns in their pockets, according to a police report.

Prosecutors allege Ressa stole his mother's car after she was beaten and choked into unconsciousness Sept. 19 at her Rialto home.

Times staff and news services

Copyright © 2005 The Seattle Times Company

Marketplace

advertising