A 39-year-old homeless man faces a second-degree murder charge for allegedly stabbing another homeless man in Kent in a dispute over a woman both men dated.
Vitaliy Khrol is scheduled to be arraigned April 23 at the Maleng Regional Justice Center in Kent, according to the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office. Khrol remains in the county jail in Seattle. Bail is set at $2 million.
Richard Henry Hamilton, 30, died from multiple stab wounds, according to the King County Medical Examiner’s Office.
Kent Police arrested Khrol April 7 behind a AutoZone Auto Parts store in the 23900 block of 104th Avenue Southeast on the East Hill. That was about five hours after a fight broke out between Khrol and Hamilton the night of April 6 in the U.S. Bank parking lot, 10231 SE 240th St. Hamilton died at the scene. Officers interviewed witnesses to help track down Khrol.
“Given the brazen and brutal nature of this attack, along with the fact that the murder weapon remains outstanding, the defendant poses an obvious risk to the community and the witnesses in this case,” wrote Senior Deputy Prosecuting Attorney John Castleton Jr. in charging papers filed April 9 in King County Superior Court requesting a high bail. “Moreover, given that he is homeless, a daily methamphetamine user and has multiple prior failures to appear, he poses a significant risk of flight if released.”
Khrol told detectives during an interview after his arrest that he had been in a dating relationship with the same homeless woman that Hamilton dated. He said all three of them were transients and lived in separate camps. He said the woman would visit him and Hamilton.
The night of the fight, Khrol told police he and the woman were sitting at a bus stop near the corner of 104th Avenue Southeast and Southeast 240th Street. While sitting and talking, Hamilton showed up and the woman immediately went to him. Khrol said that upset him because she disregarded him in favor of Hamilton.
Khrol said he previously had tried to fight Hamilton but that Hamilton would always run away. He said he told Hamilton about a month ago that he would “break him” if he ever did anything with the woman.
The woman told police that Hamilton was her boyfriend and Khrol was her ex-boyfriend. She said Khrol attacked them as they walked in the bank parking lot. She said Khrol quickly took Hamilton to the ground and that she tried to get him off of Hamilton. She then heard Hamilton say he had been stabbed.
Several witnesses provided similar accounts, according to charging documents.
When police arrested Khrol, he reportedly told them, “I didn’t mean to do it.”
During Khorl’s later interview with detectives, he said he couldn’t remember anything after he got angry with Hamilton at the bus stop. He said the next thing he remembered was waking up in the woods near U.S. Bank. He said he walked back towards his camp. He told police there was a 50/50 chance he killed Hamilton.
Khrol has been reported to always wear a fixed-blade knife affixed to his belt, but he didn’t have the knife at the time of his arrest, according to charging papers. He told detectives he didn’t know where the knife was because of his blackout after the bus stop.
According to charging papers, Khrol has several criminal convictions, including breach of the peace in Renton (2019), tampering with the property of another and third-degree theft in Kent (2019), second-degree criminal trespass in Kent (2017) and tampering with the property of another in Kent (2013). He also has failed to appear for court hearings on at least eight occasions between 2013 and 2019.
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