SEATTLE — One of two suspected killers in Sammamish's only homicide is now back in the U.S.
KIRO 7 has confirmed that 18-year-old Christopher John Shade, known as “CJ,” is behind bars at the King County Correctional Facility in downtown Seattle.
Shade and the now 21-year-old Kevin Patterson are suspected of beating 57-year-old Richard Bergeson with a shovel inside his Sammamish home last September. That same day, investigators say the two drove to Spokane, then north on a dirt road before sneaking under a barbed wire fence and into Canada. They were arrested in Abbotsford, British Columbia. Patterson -- a Canadian citizen -- is still there.
Shade was brought back to the U.S. on Thursday.
“We were notified by the Canadian authorities that he was going to be deported from the country,” Sgt. DB Gates with the King County Sheriff’s Office told KIRO 7 on Friday. “They were aware that we had a warrant out for Shade’s arrest, so our detectives drove up to British Columbia, picked him up, and transported him back.”
Shade is now being held on a $2 million bond and the murder case against him can now move forward.
However, friends and family who have posted on Shade’s public Facebook page don't believe the young man who grew up in Bandera, Texas is capable of killing anyone.
Rick Gleason became friendly with Shade in the eight months prior to Bergesen’s murder and told KIRO 7 “if CJ was involved in that, he was a lot different person than I knew. But it doesn’t surprise me. We don’t know what goes through people’s minds, and I strongly suspect that drugs were involved.”
Patterson is reportedly blaming Shade for the murder. He told investigators it was Shade who ordered him to tie up Bergesen and take his wallet at knifepoint. His attorney, Tim Leary of Seattle said “I have spoken to Kevin and he has denied that he’s the one that did this.”
But according to court documents, Shade told detectives that it was Patterson who beat Bergesen with the shovel while Shade waited in another room.
KIRO 7 contacted Shade’s parents for comment on Friday but didn’t receive a response.
Shade is expected to be arraigned later this month.
The King County Prosecutor’s Office is still working on Patterson’s extradition process which could “take months,” according to Sgt. Gates.
KIRO
