Slain parolee had been investigated in killing

A man who had been identified as a "person of interest" in the New Year's Eve slaying of Shannon Harps was found fatally stabbed early Thursday in North Seattle.

The body of William Francis Ball, 29, of Seattle, was found just after midnight in the 10300 block of Greenwood Avenue North. Seattle police said he suffered a single stab wound to the chest. He was taken to Harborview Medical Center, where he died.

Ball was a state Department of Corrections parolee with a history of mental illness, substance abuse and criminal convictions.

Police said they do not have a suspect or a motive in connection with Ball's slaying.

Ball last month was identified as a "person of interest" in the slaying of Harps, 31, outside her Capitol Hill apartment. However, DNA tests proved he was not linked to the slaying.

Police subsequently arrested another man, James Anthony Williams, 48, who has been charged in connection with Harps' death.

Court documents say police were called in October 2003 and again in July 2004 to the East Olive Street apartment Ball shared then with his mother and girlfriend.

Police said Ball's mother said her son threatened to kill her and his pregnant girlfriend. He was subsequently contacted by police for allegedly harassing pedestrians on Broadway and for threatening a bar bouncer with a box cutter.

In 2005, Ball was convicted of assault for beating a woman from whom he was renting a room. Police said he went to a party with her, started drinking and beat her with the rearview mirror of her car. He was sentenced to nine months in jail and placed on community supervision.

That same year, Ball's ex-girlfriend, the mother of his son, filed for an order of protection, saying she feared for their lives.

Last month, Ball was taken into custody for parole violations by Department of Corrections officials, who'd reportedly been told by a neighbor of Ball's at a Summit Avenue East housing complex that Ball had been drinking and acting "belligerent" over the New Year's holiday weekend.

Last month, a friend of Ball, who spoke on condition of anonymity, described him as a gifted artist who attended Cornish College of the Arts and was "very, very sweet and helpful."

Christine Clarridge: 206-464-8983 or cclarridge@seattletimes.com.

Times staff reporter Jennifer Sullivan and news researcher Miyoko Wolf contributed to this report.