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.
•••
Read yesterday’s news story about the attorney’s closing statements in the trial here
Join us