$1 million bail set for suspect in Wallingford rape, robbery

A King County District Court judge on Friday ordered that a 35-year-old Everett man, accused of sneaking into a Wallingford home and raping a woman at knife point, be held on $1 million bail.

Police have identified the man as Sankarandi Skanda, who also goes by the name Franklin David Antill.

A Seattle police report released Friday as part of Skanda's first court appearance details the brutality of the Oct. 20 attack, which occurred while the 34-year-old woman's two small children and their nanny were in their rooms. Her husband had gone out to buy infant formula.

Police say the woman told them she was sifting through mail and paying bills when she heard a noise. Upstairs, the woman encountered a man who held a knife to her throat and demanded money, police said.

The woman screamed and told the man that she didn't have any money inside the home, the police report said. She offered him her wedding ring if he would leave, the report said.

According to police, the man then raped the woman, rifled through the jewelry box and threatened to kill her.

Police were called when the woman's husband came home.

The rape suspect used the woman's credit card at a Lynnwood Wal-Mart store the following night to buy gift cards, a prepaid cellphone and a printer, the police report said. He tried to use the cards to buy a laptop computer but the credit-card company denied the transaction, Seattle police said.

Police obtained images of the man from Wal-Mart security staff and broadcast his images through the media in the hopes of learning the man's name. On Oct. 24, Crime Stoppers received an anonymous tip identifying him.

On Wednesday night, the man showed up at a Wal-Mart store in South Everett and was identified by a security officer as the same man who had been captured by video cameras at the Lynnwood store on Oct. 21, police said.

Seattle police Detective Chris Young said the rape was apparently random. After his arrest in connection with the rape, Skanda provided police with a DNA sample, which is being compared to the evidence collected at the Wallingford house, police said.

Abbi Allen, a security officer at the Everett Wal-Mart, was honored Friday by Seattle police Chief Gil Kerlikowske for helping catch Skanda.

"This was a very serious crime, and it really devastated this victim and her family," Kerlikowske said at a news conference.

Allen was able to identify Skanda because fliers about him featured a drawing that very closely resembled the suspect, the chief said.

When he came into the Wal-Mart "she [Allen] was on him," Kerlikowske said.

Allen, 25, had been scrolling through a week-old surveillance videotape that showed a man identified by police as the suspect in the attack. When Allen looked away from the video and focused on a live feed of goings-on inside the South Everett store, she saw the same man, Skanda.

"It was one of those freaky coincidences," Seattle police spokesman Mark Jamieson said.

Allen immediately called Everett police and stayed on the phone while officers were dispatched. She tracked his every move and relayed details about his whereabouts to police, said Everett police spokesman Robert Goetz. Officers were waiting for the man when he walked outside.

Police said they found a large knife, similar to the one that the rape victim said she was threatened with, inside Skanda's car.

Skanda told police that he had recently been released from a 14-year stint in prison and "would rather get into a shootout with the police" than go back to jail, the police report said.

Skanda has a criminal history in Arizona, Idaho, Oregon and Florida. He has convictions for kidnapping, assault on a police officer, escape and burglary, Seattle police said.

Police said that Skanda had recently converted to Hinduism and changed his name from Franklin David Antill.

Everett police contacted Skanda on Oct. 25 after another man said Skanda had threatened to kill him over a possible drug debt, Seattle police said. The case was still being investigated when Skanda was arrested for the rape.

Seattle detectives say that Skanda was investigated by Everett police earlier this year for fraud.

Seattle Times staff reporter Nancy Bartley contributed to this report.

Jennifer Sullivan: 206-464-8294 or jensullivan@seattletimes.com