Wednesday,

June 28, 2000

New arrest for father in teens' deaths

Witness issue stops release

By SCOTT NORTH Herald Writer

The father of a teen charged with murdering two young men May 30 was arrested Tuesday for alleged witness tampering, even as he was trying to post $75,000 bail on three felony drug charges.

Dale B. Cramm, 44, was jailed in lieu of $200,000 bail, said Jim Townsend, Snohomish County's chief criminal deputy prosecutor. The prosecutor declined to discuss the nature of the new allegations.

Dale Cramm's arrest came only moments before he was to be released from the county jail in Everett. His son, Dennis J. Cramm, 17, is in the same lockup, charged with two counts of second-degree murder in the shooting deaths of Jesse Stoner and Jason Thompson, both 18. The younger Cramm's bail has been set at $500,000.

The elder Cramm was charged Friday with possessing marijuana with intent to sell and possessing heroin and hallucinogenic mushrooms. Townsend on Monday told a judge that prosecutors are considering adding manslaughter or murder charges, alleging Dale Cramm played a key role in turning a high school fistfight into a fatal shootout.

Stoner and Thompson died when seven bullets hit the car they were riding in after a planned fistfight at the Cramms' home just south of Everett between Dennis Cramm and a 16-year-old south Snohomish County youth erupted in gunfire. The fight reportedly was watched by a few dozen young people and as many as 10 adults, including Cramm's father.

Tests on 12 shells found at the scene show bullets were fired from two SKS semiautomatic rifles. Police found three SKS rifles in the Cramm home, but tests show none of those weapons fired the fatal bullets, according to court papers.

Sheriff's major crime detectives on Tuesday were attempting to recover evidence at a location in south Snohomish County that sheriff's spokeswoman Jan Jorgensen declined to specify.

She also declined to say what they were looking for, or whether the activity was connected to the Cramm investigation.

"We are out looking for evidence in one of our cases," Jorgensen said.