Man charged with murder after killing 80-year-old Seattle woman in carjacking

LOS ANGELES — King County prosecutors filed charges Friday afternoon against the man accused of stealing a car and running over and killing an 80-year-old woman in Seattle earlier this week.

According to King County Superior Court records, 48-year-old Jahmed K. Haynes was charged with first-degree murder with use of a deadly weapon, second-degree assault with use of a deadly weapon and first-degree cruelty to animals with use of a deadly weapon.

Investigators say Haynes encountered 80-year-old Ruth Dalton while she was driving in the Madison Valley neighborhood on Tuesday morning. Dalton worked as a dog walker and had several of her clients' dogs in her car at the time.

According to Seattle police, Haynes pushed Dalton out of her car and then ran over her as he tried to flee. Dalton fell to the ground on Martin Luther King Jr. Way near East Harrison Street and passersby rushed to her aid.

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Bystanders and emergency personnel attempted to resuscitate Dalton, but he died at the scene. A bystander grabbed a baseball bat and struck the vehicle several times while Haynes fled the scene.

According to charging documents, Haynes drove Dalton's Subaru Forester to the Brighton Playfields in south Seattle, where he abandoned the car, killed Dalton's dog, Prince, and left the animal in a trash can.

The Seattle Police Department's forensics team found Dalton's cellphone and took fingerprints. The results showed a match to Haynes' prints, which were in the database due to previous convictions.

Investigators began surveillance of Haynes before arresting him in the Capitol Hill neighborhood on Wednesday. Police said Haynes had Dalton's car keys and a knife on him at the time of the arrest. Investigators noted in an arrest report that the knife appeared to have blood and animal hair on it.

Haynes demanded a lawyer and was subsequently taken to jail.

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Haynes has a criminal record dating back to the early 1990s. In 1993, he killed a man with his car in the Capitol Hill neighborhood and was convicted of negligent homicide.

He was convicted of other crimes in the 1990s and was sent to prison for robbery in 1999. Haynes stabbed a correctional officer to death in prison in 2003 and remained incarcerated until 2017, court records show.

Dalton was a mother, grandmother, and a beloved figure in the Seattle community. She ran a small dog-walking business and was known to help out at a local animal hospital.

Dalton's family told KOMO News they would organize a march in her honor and set up a donation account.

KOMO News will review court records Friday afternoon and update this story. Stay tuned for more information.