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Criminal case against accused intruder armed with ax dismissed after mental evaluation

The defendant's case was dismissed after a judge deemed him incompetent for trial.

SEATTLE — A couple living in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood is frustrated that a man who allegedly entered their apartment last month will not have a criminal case against him move forward.

Henry Stelter said an unknown man entered the apartment through a balcony door that was open to let fresh air in sometime in the morning of June 16. The unit is on the first floor but elevated several feet above ground level from the back alley.

"I peeked my head out into the hallway and saw a strange man," said Stelter.

Stelter said the man had a backpack with a handle sticking out, and he was wearing a glove that appeared to be adorned with a spike. Police later discovered the man had a double-sided ax, a hatchet, and drug paraphernalia on him, according to a Seattle Police Department report.

Stelter grabbed his pistol and told the intruder to leave.

"I actually forced him to back up and climb off of the balcony," explained Stelter.

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Surveillance images provided to KING 5 show the man left the way he entered through the balcony door. Stelter called 911, and police located the man and arrested him.

What was initially a burglary investigation was downgraded to a misdemeanor trespassing charge because the man entered through an open balcony door and did not pull out the ax to threaten Stelter before leaving.

“Based on the circumstances as they occurred, this case does not meet the filing standards of the King County Prosecutor's Office for a referral of a charge of burglary," the police report says.

The case was then sent to Seattle Municipal Court.

The man, identified as 46-year-old Stanley Red, underwent a mental evaluation and was deemed incompetent for trial by a judge hearing the case, according to Seattle City Attorney spokesperson Dan Nolte.

“In Washington, state law requires that a defendant be mentally competent in order to stand trial, so when the Court found him incompetent, we were unable to proceed further with the case," Nolte said in a statement.

The dismissal of the case frustrated Stelter.

“It's extremely frustrating to think that because he was reaching for a weapon and he was moving towards me, the fact that I was prepared and stopped him, the fact that he's now back out on the streets to just do it again," said Stelter.

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The June 16 incident was not Red's first encounter with the law. He has a considerable criminal history dating back to the 1990s.

In 1999, Red was convicted of manslaughter in King County for his part in a case involving a bathtub drowning of a toddler and was sentenced to 194 months in prison, which amounts to a little more than 16 years.

In 2016, Red was convicted of third-degree assault against an officer and served nine months, a sentence based on his criminal history score at the time. Court records described Red as a transient during the incident.

“State lawmakers set the standard rage for a third-degree assault with an offender score of three at nine to 12 months,” said King County Prosecuting Attorney's Office spokesperson Casey McNerthney. “It's then up to a judge to decide where in the standard range a person is sentenced.”

What followed were smaller run-ins with police over theft and harassment, including two criminal trespass incidents in 2018 and one in 2020, which were dismissed due to "reason of incompetency," according to arrest history records.

In relation to the June incident, Red was referred to mental health professionals at Harborview Medical Center upon the dismissal of his trespass case, according to the city attorney's office. At last check, Red's exact whereabouts are unknown due to patient privacy laws.

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