He was supposed to be looking at a tattoo book. Instead he was beaten and robbed, charges say
A man who allegedly attacked and robbed someone he lured to a Pierce County shed under the pretense of doing tattoos has been arrested.
Prosecutors charged the 36-year-old with second-degree assault and first-degree robbery Friday. He pleaded not guilty at arraignment and was ordered held in lieu of $75,000 bail.
Charging papers give this account of what happened:
Sheriff’s deputies got a report of a robbery May 11. They responded to find the victim with blood stains on his shirt, blood on his face and several teeth missing. He said they were knocked out when he was assaulted.
He met the suspect through an acquaintance, he said, because he was told the 36-year-old did tattoos.
The suspect said he’d show the victim his tattoo book somewhere on 205th Avenue East, and the victim drove him and another man to that place in his BMW.
The suspect pointed to a shed on the property when they got there, and, when they got inside, the men punched him in the head and kicked him when he was on the ground.
He pleaded for them to stop, but they kept attacking him.
Then they left with his phone, wallet and BMW while other men held him down.
Sheriff’s deputies learned Thursday that the 36-year-old suspect was headed to his mother’s Lake Tapps home. They saw his vehicle outside.
No one answered when they knocked and used a loudspeaker, but about an hour later the mother started backing her vehicle out of the garage.
“She was ordered to stop and was asked where her son was,” the declaration for determination of probable cause says. “She said she had to leave and began to back up again. She was ordered to stop, but continued to back up, striking one of the deputies in the process.”
Then she stopped, and deputies found the suspect in the trunk.
The mother pleaded not guilty at arraignment to third-degree assault and first-degree rendering criminal assistance.
