Lewis County Sirens.com

Robert J. Maddaus Jr. sits in front of the judge with his back to a large courtroom audience when the jury returns with its guilty verdicts today.

This was updated at 3:59 p.m. and 5:05 p.m.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

OLYMPIA – A jury found Robert J. Maddaus Jr. of Rochester guilty today of first-degree murder and each of the other counts he was charged with.

After the verdict, the mother of his victim, forty-year-old Shaun Peterson, had just four words:

“Justice has been served,” said Judy Peterson of Lacey.

Shaun Allen Peterson

Shaun Peterson was found handcuffed and fatally shot on Capitol Way in Olympia in the early morning of Nov. 16, 2009.

Deputy Prosecuting Attorney David Bruneau laid out evidence over the course of a three-plus week trial that Maddaus forced Peterson to put on handcuffs as Maddaus attempted to find who had robbed his Rochester mobile home of some five pounds of methamphetamine and $30,000 cash. Witnesses said the 41-year-old brought Peterson to an associate’s apartment on Capitol Way and shortly after the men left, five shots rang out in the street.

He is scheduled to be sentenced at 4 p.m. on Tuesday.

His lawyer says he will appeal.

“We feel there are a lot of issues for appeal, we’re going to continue on the battle,” Olympia attorney Richard Woodrow said.

How much prison time Maddaus faces is not yet clear, but Bruneau said “a lot.”

“Somewhere between 30 and 50 years,” Bruneau said. “And that’s a conservative estimate.”

The jury of 10 women and two men began deliberations at 1:30 p.m. yesterday, went home for the night and made their decisions by 11:45 this morning.

Maddaus was convicted also of two counts of unlawful possession of a firearm and four counts of witness tampering, as well as second-degree assault and attempted kidnapping involving an incident at his home three days before the shooting in which a 25-year-old woman he believed was involved in the theft described being interrogated and shot with a paintball gun.

Peterson’s mother has been present during the trial in Thurston County Superior Court, accompanied at times by Peterson’s sister, his former wife and also Randi Henn who lived with Peterson in Tumwater at the time of his death .

The couple had just had a baby girl the month he was slain. His 12-year-old son was in the courtroom today.

Henn said the trial has been nerve-racking, and she’s glad it’s over. They’re “more than satisfied” with the outcome and the expected prison stay for Maddaus, she said.

“I can’t wait for him to die in there,” Henn said.

Forty-two-year-old David Conn has been sitting in as well. He was jubilant about the verdict.

“Blessings and redemption on Shaun’s soul,” Conn said.

He and Peterson grew up together in on the east side of Olympia.

“We all live in that world and we all make bad choices,” Conn said. “But the fact is, he didn’t deserve what he got.”

Among the witnesses were at least four admitted drug dealers who testified Maddaus was their supplier.

Maddaus denied everything when he testified on his own behalf on Monday, however, he admitted he sold drugs and wanted to find out who had robbed him.

His mother Irene Cudinski saw him for the first time yesterday since November 2009.

The Rochester woman was listed as a witness for the prosecution and as such, was barred from contact with him and from the courtroom until yesterday, she said.

Cudinski was never called to the stand.

She said she otherwise would have attended the proceedings in support of her grown son.

Trina Cristelli, an Elma woman who’s known Maddaus some 20 years, however, did sit through the entire trial beginning on the first day.

Cristelli, who said Maddaus is like a little brother to her, said Maddaus isn’t perfect by a long shot, but he’s not the monster painted by the prosecution.

She said she wouldn’t have been surprised if he was found guilty on some of the counts, but was stunned the jury felt there was enough evidence for murder, beyond a reasonable doubt.

There was no murder weapon, no DNA, no eyewitnesses, she said. Only the testimony from individuals, on both sides, who are in jail and have criminal records, she said.

“My feeling about it was because he was a drug dealer (the jury thought) he was guilty of everything,” she said.

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Read yesterday’s news story about the attorney’s closing statements in the trial here

Corrections officers take Robert J. Maddaus Jr. back to the jail after the jury leaves to begin deliberating in his murder trial.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

OLYMPIA – A jury began deliberations today in the shooting death of a handcuffed man in Olympia.

Forty-year-old Shaun Peterson died on Capitol Boulevard early the morning of Nov. 16, 2009.

Robert John Maddaus Jr.

His admitted drug supplier, Robert J. Maddaus Jr. of Rochester, is charged with first-degree murder, witness tampering and other crimes in Thurston County Superior Court.

The prosecution alleges Maddaus believed Peterson broke into his Rochester home and stole some five pounds of methamphetamine and $30,000 cash and that Maddaus then abducted Peterson and shot him outside the apartment of another drug dealer.

The defense claims the shots were actually fired by 30-year-old Matthew Tremblay who was with Maddaus, Peterson and three others at the apartment.

Shaun Allen Peterson

Both Maddaus and Tremblay point to each other as the shooter. No one else but one or both of them and Peterson was outside when he was was killed, according to witness statements.

Police did not find a murder weapon.

“This defendant, ladies and gentlemen, is the only one with motive, the one with the means and the only one who is guilty of murder in the first degree and all the other crimes,”  Deputy Prosecuting Attorney David Bruneau said in his closing statements today.

Bruneau summarized testimony that Maddaus told others he would kill whoever stole his drugs, was seen walking out of the apartment armed, became a fugitive after the shooting and then tried to develop an alibi.

Maddaus is charged with first-degree premeditated murder or felony first-degree murder. The second allegation is that while he was committing or attempting to commit kidnapping, he caused Peterson’s death.

Bruneau called Maddaus’s testimony he asked Peterson to put on the handcuffs while in the Lacey Fred Meyer parking lot “poppycock”.

The 41-year-old Rochester man is also charged with unlawful possession of a firearm as well as attempted kidnapping and second-degree assault of a 25-year-old woman days before Peterson’s death; a woman he suspected was involved in the theft.

Defense attorney Richard Woodrow pointed out there is no scientific evidence such as DNA or blood spatter that ties anyone to the crime.

“Another way of looking at this this is this is not a murder first degree, but an accidental shooting by Mr. Tremblay,” Woodrow told jurors today.

The statements by witnesses and proof Mr. Tremblay was the shooter will rise to reasonable doubt, he said.

Woodrow contended all the occupants of the apartment hid from the law until they were arrested, and that Dan Leville, Falyn Grimes and Jesse Rivera had time to put together a “story”.

He pointed out he had witnesses who testified Tremblay told them he did it and it was an accident. And, Woodrow said, the jury heard witnesses who told them the prosecution’s witnesses told them differing accounts.

“They’re all consistent among friends, but what they don’t know is we ferreted out these things,” Woodrow said.

The trial has spread out over four weeks and numerous witnesses testifying about incidents from Olympia, to Tumwater, Lacey, Centralia, Chehalis, Onalaska and Rochester. Also examined during hours of testimony was Maddaus’s quest to find the thief and his week and a half he spent hiding from the law.

However, not answered at all is who stole Maddaus’s drugs nor how it was he replenished his supply after the robbery.

Police found one and three quarter pounds of methamphetamine, nearly a half pound of cocaine and about one-third pound of heroin inside a backpack when Maddaus was captured Nov. 27, 2009 in the Chehalis Industrial Park with former Chehalis resident Robbie Russell.

Also not answered is how many of at least four admitted drug dealers who testified Maddaus was their supplier – or more who were named, including Peterson and Russell – have been charged with selling drugs.

The jury of 10 women and two men were sent home for the evening and expected to resume deliberations tomorrow morning.

•••

Read about:
• Maddaus testifies he didn’t do it, here

• Witnesses point to Maddaus’ friend as shooter, here

• Tremblay testifies Maddaus shot Peterson, here
• Inside the apartment that night, here
• The robbery at Maddaus’s Rochester mobile home, here
• Day one of Maddaus’s trial, here
• Why the first jury pool had to be dismissed, here
• Why Maddaus was convicted of just simple possession in Lewis County last month, here
• How Maddaus refused to testify against Robbie Russell in September, here
• How Russell and Maddaus tried to outrun sheriff’s deputies a week and a half after Peterson’s death, here

Matthew Tremblay is questioned by defense attorney Richard Woodrow last week in Thurston County Superior Court