Slain woman had protection order

A woman who was fatally shot by her estranged husband at a Redmond apartment complex Tuesday just before he killed himself had obtained a protection order against the man a little more than a week earlier, court records show.

The protection order was obtained July 21 by Melissa Batten, 36, against Joseph Batten, also 36, in King County District Court in Redmond. In her request for the order, the woman had written that her estranged husband had recently purchased a handgun and had threatened to kill himself.

The King County Medical Examiner's Office said Thursday that Melissa Batten died of multiple gunshot wounds and classified the death as a homicide. Joseph Batten died of a single gunshot wound and his death was classified as a suicide, according to the medical examiner's office.

In her request for a protection order, Melissa Batten described how her husband had called her more than 30 times on July 19 and 20 and warned her never to hang up on him. She also described a chain of circumstances that led to the phone calls, including how her husband broke into her workplace at Microsoft on July 16 and was caught by security guards.

"The biggest incident which clouds all his subsequent behavior occurred on June 5," she wrote in the request. "He had, unbeknownst to me, obtained a gun."

At that time, she continued, the couple were living together but he discovered she had had an affair and he confronted her about the affair at dinner, then "brandished the gun from the back waistband of his jeans and pointed it at me," she wrote.

Joseph Batten then showed the gun was loaded and the safety was off and he put the gun to his head and said he was going to kill himself, Melissa Batten continued.

The order was granted by a district-court judge and copies were faxed to the Redmond Police Department and the King County Sheriff's Office. Records show the order was served on Joseph Batten at an address in Kent at 9:15 a.m. July 24. The order directed Joseph Batten not to come within 100 yards of Melissa Batten and set other conditions.

Police say Melissa Batten had moved to an apartment on 156th Avenue Northeast in Redmond, where she was staying with a friend.

She left the apartment Tuesday morning to go to work. Joseph Batten confronted her in a parking lot, shot her several times with a 9-mm handgun and then shot himself in the head, police reported.

Peyton Whitely: 206-464-2259

or pwhitely@seattletimes.com