Suspect in Renton handyman stabbing is back in jail after bail increase

Michael Dean Gray, 65, died Sept. 27.

A 19-year-old Renton man charged and released on $50,000 bail in the Sept. 27 stabbing death of a 65-year-old handyman has returned to custody after prosecutors motioned for the court to increase his bail.

Prosecutors filed a motion on Oct. 2 requesting the court raise 19-year-old K’Shawn Konscience Jimerson’s bail, set at his Sept. 28 first appearance hearing. Prosecutors requested an increase from the $50,000 bail — which Jimerson met and was released on — to $2 million.

Prosecutors stated new information not included in the first appearance documents and the “steps the defendant took prior to the stabbing” established a “reasonable cause to believe that he will commit a violent offense.”

Additional information prosecutors detailed in the affidavit of probable cause included video footage captured on a Ring camera of Jimerson striking Michael Dean Gray, 65, in the back of the head with a wooden stick, stabbing Gray within 15 seconds of Gray entering Jimerson’s apartment unit, and a lack of observable injuries to Jimerson, according to detectives at the scene.

Judge Johanna Bender oversaw Jimerson’s Oct. 3 motion hearing for his bail increase. She granted the prosecutorial motion and increased Jimerson’s bail to $500,000 with an additional condition of electronic home detention in the event Jimerson meets the increased bail.

Judge Bender signed an order at the hearing remanding Jimerson to jail in the custody of the Department of Adult Detention.

Jimerson faces a charge of murder in the second degree with a deadly weapon enhancement.

The court scheduled his arraignment hearing for Oct. 16 at the Maleng Regional Justice Center in Kent.