Man held in connection to fatal Kent carjacking

King County prosecutors charged a Kent man with first-degree murder and felony hit and run Monday in connection with a fatal carjacking in Kent, according to charging papers.

Michael Riley, 26, is being held in the King County Jail in lieu of $1 million bail. His arraignment is scheduled for June 29.

Riley is suspected in the death of 31-year-old Jonathan Burnett.

The probable-cause statement outlining the Kent police case against Riley gives this account:

The carjacking happened about 7 p.m. Thursday when a resident of the Somerset Apartments in Kent started his car in the lot, then briefly left it running as he went to talk with another resident.

After Riley hopped into the driver’s seat, the car owner ran back and tried to jump in through the open passenger window. Riley started to drive off with the man still hanging on as Riley headed south onto 109th Avenue Southeast.

Witnesses saw the car “violently swerving and hitting the roadway curbing multiple times in an obvious effort to throw” the man off. He was thrown, hit his head on the sidewalk and was knocked unconscious.

He died hours later June 12 at the hospital.

A 911 dispatcher sent an alert to Renton police and just before 8 p.m., Riley crashed the stolen car into another car and ran off. A Renton officer found Riley sweating profusely and breathing hard near the hit-and-run and placed him in the patrol car.

Soon after, a K-9 unit tracked Riley’s scent from the stolen vehicle and went to the patrol car. Witnesses identified Riley as the man who had stolen the car from the apartment complex.

According to court records, Riley was charged in 2012 with second-degree kidnapping and other charges after stealing his ex-girlfriend’s car with her two children inside.

That car had been equipped with a LoJack system and police found it two miles away, with Riley in the driver’s seat and a .38-caliber revolver on the floorboard, the records say.

A 7-year-old boy in the back seat had a bloody lip, but otherwise he and his 2-year-old brother were not hurt, according to the records. Riley is the father of the younger boy.

Riley is a self-admitted member of the Valley Hood Piru street gang, court records say.

News Tribune staff contributed to this report.