3 arrested for fatal stabbing in Bonney Lake
Three men fatally stabbed an acquaintance at his Bonney Lake home Monday so they could steal methamphetamine from him, according to charging papers.
Pierce County prosecutors on Tuesday charged Donovan Bateman, 19; Julian Leong, 36; and Brody Nelson, 26, with first-degree murder and first-degree robbery. Not guilty pleas were entered at their arraignment Tuesday afternoon.
Bateman and Leong were ordered held in lieu of $2.5 million bail, Nelson in lieu of $2 million.
The stabbing occurred about 5:15 a.m. Monday on 202nd Avenue East.
The victim was Richard Gene Wilt, 47, according to the Pierce County Medical Examiner’s Office.
At the time of the homicide, Leong was out on bail for an unrelated strong arm robbery and a warrant had been issued for Bateman.
Charging papers give this account:
One of the victim’s roommates said the victim came into the kitchen, handed over his cell phone and said he’d be right back.
When the victim came back inside, his roommate noticed he’d been stabbed so he yelled for another roommate to call 911 then “went to sit with someone in a trailer,” records say.
Police arrived and found the victim unresponsive in a living room chair.
He was pronounced dead at the scene from multiple stab wounds to the torso.
The roommate later told detectives the victim sold meth and regularly asked him to hold his phone because he had been jumped in the past.
Another roommate told police she’d spotted two men standing in the driveway shortly before the attack.
Video surveillance from the neighborhood showed a GMC Yukon picking up two men near the victim’s house.
Detectives were able to track the SUV to Leong and took the three men into custody late Monday in the parking lot of an Auburn casino.
Blood was found near the front passenger door handle and on the front passenger side armrest, records say.
When Bateman was told why he was being arrested, he allegedly said, “You ain’t got no blood on me.”
A cell phone and bag of meth — believed to be stolen from the victim — were found on Bateman when he was arrested.
Nelson was the only one of the three suspects to speak with investigators, and he allegedly said Bateman was responsible for the stabbing.
Bateman and Leong allegedly came to Nelson’s house around midnight and started talking about who they could rob to get money and drugs.
They settled on the victim because he had been intimate with Nelson’s ex-girlfriend recently.
Nelson sent the victim a text message to set up a drug deal and they drove to his house.
After a while, the victim came outside and showed them the drugs but a fight broke out when Nelson’s ex-girlfriend was mentioned.
Nelson said he was unaware Bateman had stabbed the victim until later.
“Nelson further stated that defendant Bateman was ‘bragging’ about stabbing the victim and said that he thought he stabbed the victim ‘8 to 28 times,’” prosecutors wrote in charging papers.
The three men are suspected of cleaning up at Leong’s mother’s house and then a Buckley motel.
Police recovered the knife believed to be used in the homicide after Nelson directed them to it.
This story was originally published September 15, 2020 at 1:40 PM.
