A King County judge found probable cause to hold a 29-year-old Federal Way man in jail on investigation of homicide for the stabbing death of his girlfriend.
The suspect waived an appearance at a bail hearing Monday at the King County Regional Justice Center and will remain in custody. He is being held without bail. The deadline for charging the man is July 11, according to the King County Prosecutor’s Office.
The victim has been identified as Melinda O’Meara, age 20.
Federal Way police responded to the Camelot Mobile Home Park in the 3000 block of South 288th Street at approximately 11:21 p.m. July 6 after a neighbor called 911 to report the 29-year-old had stabbed his wife. It was later determined that O’Meara and the man were dating and not married.
When police arrived, they entered the trailer where O’Meara was laying face down on the kitchen floor surrounded in blood, according to the police report. She was unresponsive and bleeding heavily from lacerations and puncture wounds on her neck.
After the neighbor called 911, he flagged down a passing security officer. While waiting for police to arrive, the security officer detained the suspect in handcuffs and in the back of his vehicle, according to the report.
The neighbor stated that he was in his living room when the man entered his residence through an unlocked door, according to the report. He noticed that the suspect was “distraught and appeared on the verge of tears.”
The neighbor stated that the man asked to borrow his phone so he could call 911. When the neighbor asked why, the suspect responded, “I think someone is about to kill my wife.” The neighbor said that while he was on the phone with dispatchers, the man stated, “I stabbed her,” the report said.
When police arrived, the suspect told them the knife was “on the floor next to the one she came at me with.”
According to the report, the man told police that he returned from a long day at work and all he wanted to do was take a shower when “she started talking in demon talk.”
The suspect stated that O’Meara came at him with a knife, so he grabbed the knife from her, and then blacked out, the report said. He claims to have no memory of what occurred.
Federal Way police report previous contacts with the man, but no cases of domestic violence between the man and the deceased woman.