80-year-old woman run over in car theft, dog stabbed: police

By MARTHA BELLISLE, The Associated Press

SEATTLE (AP) — A man accused of running over a popular 80-year-old Seattle dog owner and later stabbing her dog to death has been charged with murder and animal cruelty.

Jahmed Kamal Haynes, 48, was charged with first-degree murder, second-degree assault and first-degree cruelty to animals, according to a document filed with the court. Prosecutors requested that he be held in jail without bail, and the judge agreed. Haynes is scheduled to go to trial on Sept. 5.

It was not immediately known if Haynes had an attorney or if one would be assigned to him by the King County Public Defender's Office. Officials said they did not believe Haynes knew Dalton.

Ruth Dalton was parked on the side of the road in Seattle's Madison Valley neighborhood about 10 a.m. Tuesday when Haynes got in the passenger side, prosecutors said. Dalton began driving away while Haynes tried to get the vehicle under control, they said. He pushed her out of the car and into the street, backed into several parked cars and ran her over as he fled the scene, prosecutors said.

Several bystanders tried to intervene, one carrying a bat or stick, but Haynes threatened them with a knife, prosecutors said. After he left, witnesses tried to administer life-saving measures, but Dalton died at the scene.

After leaving the neighborhood, Haynes stabbed Dalton's dog in a park, prosecutors said.

“The sheer brutality of the defendant's actions that morning was only demonstrated by the way he handled the evidence of his crimes: He disposed of Dalton's dog in a recycling bin and destroyed Dalton's phone,” said Assistant District Attorney Brent Kling in his motion for release without bail.

Seattle police identified the suspect after someone reported a man injuring a dog in the park. Officers responded and found Dalton's car nearby and were able to take fingerprints from her cellphone, Seattle Deputy Police Chief Eric Barden said during a news conference Wednesday.

When police arrested Haynes near his home, he was carrying a blood-stained knife and the keys to Dalton's Subaru, Barden said.

Haynes has an extensive and violent criminal past, prosecutors argued in asking that he be held without bail.

He was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in 1993 for driving recklessly through Seattle streets and veering onto a sidewalk, crashing into several vehicles and killing one driver. After serving his sentence, he was convicted in 1999 of robbing a Safeway store with a pellet gun and stealing a car, Kling said.

While in prison for those crimes, he attacked two correctional officers in 2003 with a blunt-sharpened, 12-inch-long piece of metal, Kling said.

“In short, the level of violence of which the defendant is capable, not only on the day he committed the crimes he is charged with, but also over the past 30 years, demonstrates a propensity for violence that conclusively demonstrates that he poses a danger to the community,” Kling said.

The judge agreed.