The King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office has filed charges against a 19-year-old Renton man in the Sept. 27 stabbing death of a 65-year-old man who was working as a handyman at the time of the attack.
Prosecutors filed a charge of murder in the second degree with a deadly weapon enhancement against 19-year-old K’Shawn Konscience Jimerson of Renton in King County Superior Court on Oct. 2 for the stabbing death of 65-year-old Michael Dean Gray.
An autopsy from the King County Medical Examiner’s Office found Gray died as a result of multiple stab wounds. Gray suffered additional injuries including blunt force injuries to the back of the head and a laceration above his eye.
Video footage from a Ring camera captured Jimerson striking Gray several times in the back shoulder area and head — outside the apartment unit where Jimerson is a resident — with a portion of a “solid wood broom stick” prior to the stabbing, according to the affidavit.
Gray was a handyman hired to work on tasks at the unit.
Gray chased Jimerson into the unit following the attack outside, with Jimerson stabbing Gray in the residence with a kitchen knife within 15 seconds of his entrance into the unit, according to prosecutors.
According to the affidavit, Gray suffered a stab wound to the lower-mid-back, striking the aorta, and a second stab wound to the upper-mid-back that intersected with the first wound.
Jimerson dialed 911 following the stabbing, identifying himself by name and stating he stabbed a person with “a kitchen knife.”
Responding officers to the scene located Gray unconscious and not breathing, lying on his back on the living room floor of the apartment unit. Police attempted chest compressions on Gray prior to the arrival of medical personnel from the Renton Regional Fire Authority.
First responders declared Gray deceased at the scene.
According to the affidavit, responding officers located Jimerson standing in the street in front of the residence with blood on his clothing and his arms in the air.
Police collected the stick used to strike Gray as evidence, in addition to the kitchen knife, located submerged in water in the kitchen sink next to cleaning solution.
Jimerson remained out of custody at the time of the Oct. 2 filing after his release on $50,000 bail, set by the King County Superior Court at his Sept. 28 first appearance hearing, against a request from prosecutors at the hearing to set Jimerson’s bail at $2 million.
Prosecutors filed a motion alongside charges on Oct. 2 for the King County Superior Court to raise Jimerson’s bail to $2 million.
“Although the defendant committed a gratuitously violent crime, inexplicably, bail was set at only $50,000 on the basis of a lack of criminal history and ties to the community,” stated prosecutors in Jimerson’s charging documents.
According to Casey McNerthney, a spokesperson for the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, the court will address the prosecutorial team’s motion to increase Jimerson’s bail on Thursday, Oct. 3.
The court scheduled Jimerson’s arraignment for Oct. 16 at the Maleng Regional Justice Center in Kent.