Suspect Attacked Her, Housekeeper Testifies
A part-time housekeeper for a cancer patient who was stabbed to death in his Greenwood apartment testified that she was beaten and choked by the same assailant.
Tracy Merritt yesterday told a King County jury that she didn't see David R. Richmond kill her employer but a short time later she fought off Richmond herself until police arrived. Richmond, a 34-year-old auto mechanic, is accused of first-degree murder in the death of Michael Cameron and attempted first-degree murder in the attack on Merritt.
Deputy Prosecutor Robert Knief told jurors that Richmond slit the throat of Cameron, who was able to call 911 before losing consciousness. He died at the scene.
Merritt said she and her son, 4, went to the apartment the evening of March 13 so she could sew curtains for Cameron. ``He had cancer so he couldn't get around very well,'' Merritt told jurors before Superior Court Judge Patricia Aitken.
Merritt said after she heard a ruckus in the bathroom she turned around ``and this man started beating on me. I was screaming. . . . He told me to shut up or he would snap my neck.''
Richmond then grasped her wrist and led her to the bathroom area, where she asked if Cameron was OK. ``He'll be all right,'' she quoted Richmond as saying. Richmond then began beating and choking her again, she said.
``That's when I started to lose consciousness,'' she recalled. ``I started to see white and go out. I heard my son say someone was at the door and the police came.''
Defense attorney Michael Kolker said Richmond and Cameron were friends and had been drinking beer together and had shared ``two hits of cocaine'' on the night of the murder.
Kolker said Richmond blacked out and doesn't remember any violent acts. There was no motive, Kolker said, arguing that his client should not be convicted of premeditated murder.