2 homeless Tacomans killed in separate attacks. Here’s how police zeroed in on suspect
A 22-year-old Tacoma man is now accused of murdering two people last year near the same Eastside homeless encampment. Charging documents filed last week reveal new details about how police identified him as the attacker in the second killing, a stabbing inside a tent.
Nickolas Rojas was charged last month with additional first- and second-degree murder offenses in Pierce County Superior Court for the killing of Syretta Brown, a 35-year-old woman whose remains were found in November 2021, about six weeks after Oct. 2, the day authorities believe she was murdered.
The defendant was re-arraigned on those charges Dec. 21. His bail was raised from $1 million to $2 million.
The other man Rojas is accused of killing, Diego Escalante, 31, was shot multiple times Sept. 25, 2021, while he sat in a chair inside the homeless encampment. About a month after the shooting, the defendant’s mother went to the police and told them she had a gut feeling her son was responsible, according to court records. The Rojas lived nine blocks from the encampment, and the mother allegedly told detectives her son had a hatred for homeless people, was mentally unstable and had been violent as a child.
Police served a search warrant on their house the next day, Oct. 29, and found a Glock 9 mm pistol that forensic technicians matched to 16 shell casings recovered from the camp where Escalante was killed.
To identify Rojas as suspect in Brown’s murder, detectives used interviews with the defendant’s family and sales records to determine he owned the same brand of knife that fits into a sheath found at the crime scene. Detectives also found medical records that showed Rojas went to a hospital Oct. 2 for a cut to his hand that prosecutors said he could have received while attacking Brown. Investigators also traced the victim’s whereabouts, finding surveillance footage from a convenience store at 3848 McKinley Ave. purported to show her walking past about an hour-and-a-half before Rojas was taken to a hospital.
Knife sheath found near victim’s body
Weeks after police searched Rojas’ home, Brown’s body was found in a tent 200 yards from the same encampment, just west of East 38th Street and McKinley Avenue, according to police. Court records state she was found after a homeless man asked a friend if he wanted to see a dead body, and the friend called 911 when they came across it.
Brown had stab wounds up and down her body, according to charging documents. At least one cut on her forearm looked like a defensive wound, prosecutors wrote in the documents, meaning her attacker could have hurt themselves in the struggle. By a nearby tree, police found an empty knife sheath.
Detectives interviewed Rojas’ father and brother about the sheath at the beginning of December 2021. It was black and looked to be made for a dagger, with black and red paracord strung through eyelets on it, records state. By speaking with the owner of the sheath brand, a Puyallup-based company, detectives were told it was meant to fit a specific Spartan Blades-brand dagger.
Rojas’ father and brother were shown a photo of the sheath, but neither recognized it, according to the declaration for determination of probable cause. Rojas’ father told detectives his son did own multiple knives, and he said he took them from Rojas after police searched their house in connection with Escalante’s murder. Detectives went back to the house to inspect them.
The detectives were shown 12 knives that Rojas’ father had been keeping in a locked gun box. They varied in size from 4-12 inches, but none were similar to the Spartan Blades-brand dagger they were looking for, records state. Sales records from the knife company showed Rojas bought a knife and two sheaths from them in April 2021, according to the probable cause document, but they didn’t have a sales record for the model of knife that detectives were told would fit the sheath.
Defendant taken to hospital while family was away
Detectives also zeroed in on another aspect of their interviews with Rojas’ family. According to the probable cause document, all of Rojas’ family except for him went to Mexico on Oct. 1, 2021 and returned Oct. 4. The defendant’s father and brother recalled that when they returned, Rojas had a cut on his hand.
Rojas allegedly wouldn’t say what happened when his mother asked him about it, but later said he cut his finger and had gone to a neighbor’s house for help. Medical aid was called, and the cut was bad enough that he was brought to St. Joseph’s Medical Center for stitches. According to charging documents, it was around that time that Rojas allegedly told his parents he’d killed people.
His mother previously told detectives investigating Escalante’s murder that in the first weeks of October, her son came downstairs while intoxicated.
“Nicholas asked his parents ‘Do you know why I drink? Would you still love me if I killed someone?’ Nicholas continued and said, ‘I can’t live with myself, so I get [expletive] up.’ [His mother] asked what he meant, and Nicholas said, ‘I kill people,’ records state.
Charging documents in Escalante’s murder state that Rojas denied making those statements when his mother asked him about it the next day. Detectives contacted Rojas’ mother again in December 2021, and she clarified that Rojas made the statement Oct. 4, and that she thought he meant he’d been involved in more than one murder.
Detectives confirmed with the emergency room at St. Joseph’s that he arrived there for a hand injury at 1:36 a.m. Oct. 2 and he was discharged with 12 stitches at 3:42 a.m. Medical records showed Tacoma Fire Department personnel transported him from an address on East I Street at 12:50 a.m., according to the probable cause document. Fire personnel said Rojas stated he’d been drinking all night, went to get beer and the next thing he knew he was bleeding from his hand.
At the East I Street address, detectives spoke with a woman who said Rojas came to her door that night, and she spoke with him through her Ring camera, records state. Footage from the camera shows he was outside at about 12:47 a.m.
“The defendant is seen on video saying ‘Yeah, I’m trying to raise somebody, cause I need to go to the [expletive] hospital right now, but nobody is answering the [expletive] door,’” Rojas said, according to court records. “‘Can you please call 911 at least? Just for me. I don’t care about you. I’m just trying to get 911.’ When [the neighbor] asks the defendant what happened, he states, ‘I got [expletive] cut by somebody.’”
