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
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter