Tuesday,

June 6, 2000


Alleged threat investigated in shooting

Father of suspect may have involved himself in fight

By SCOTT NORTH Herald Writer

The father of an Everett-area teen held in connection with a double slaying may have threatened to "start blasting" moments before a fistfight turned into a shootout outside his home early last week.

Dale Cramm, 44, is believed to have made the comment to warn others against interfering in the planned fight between another young man and his son, Dennis J. Cramm, 17, according to a search warrant and witness statement filed Monday in Everett District Court.

The May 30 fight reportedly was watched by a couple of dozen young people and up to 10 adults, including the elder Cramm. Some of those people had guns, and an unknown number began firing after Dale Cramm attempted to intervene when his son appeared to be losing the fight, according to a police synopsis of the incident filed in court Friday.

Jesse Stoner and Jason Thompson, both 18, of Everett, died when the car they'd ridden in to watch the fight was raked by gunfire from an SKS assault rifle as it was being driven from the scene.

Snohomish County prosecutors scheduled a press conference today to discuss filing charges against the younger Cramm, who is being treated as an adult because of the seriousness of the case.

The Mariner High School student surrendered to police Thursday and was booked into jail for investigation of two counts of second-degree murder. His bail has been set at $500,000.

It is the second time this year that the younger Cramm has faced serious trouble because of anger and guns.

He pleaded guilty May 4 to intimidating a witness stemming from a Jan. 23 domestic violence incident at the Cramm home south of Everett, during which a glass window was punched out, and the teen threatened to kill his mother for calling police.

Cramm was sentenced in juvenile court to counseling and drug treatment as part of a plea agreement reached in the case. The agreement was supported by lawyers on both sides as well as juvenile probation officials.

Prosecutors on Monday said that a closer review of the case shows the younger Cramm should not have been eligible for the alternate punishment. Instead, he should have been sentenced to a state juvenile detention facility for a term of somewhere between four and nine months.

A mistake was made, but the January incident was Cramm's first brush with the law, and he seemed a good candidate for getting his life back on track through drug treatment and counseling, said Jim Townsend, the county's chief criminal deputy prosecutor.

"I think everybody was well-intentioned," he said. "Nobody can see a double homicide coming."

"The bottom line is that nobody from the system pulled the trigger," added Michael Downes, an assistant chief criminal deputy prosecutor.

Regardless, Dennis Cramm likely would have been free early last week, said his attorney, Royce Ferguson of Everett.

The lawyer said that he encouraged the May plea to spare his client the risk of facing additional charges. If detention was mandated as part of the sentence, Ferguson said, he would have made sure his client would not have been required to begin serving his time until after the end of the school year.

Records filed late last week show Cramm was not doing well in the treatment and counseling program.

On May 8, he tested positive for using marijuana, he twice failed to attend group therapy, and he racked up 33 unexcused absences from school, according to a June 1 report from his probation counselor.

"Respondent's behavior in group has been inappropriate," the report says. "Respondent drew 'white power' and swastikas on his treatment notebook. Respondent has made verbal racial slurs in group."

Ferguson said records show the younger Cramm was a good student, earning As and Bs in his classes, and that he also pitched on the school baseball team.

He said the teen's attendance problems and racial slurs are a "real recent development" that are tied to problems he was having with certain black students. Dennis Cramm was fighting a young black man before shots rang out last week, according to court papers.

The search warrant makes some references to bullet holes found on the outside of the Cramm home. The angle of the bullets' paths caused detectives to speculate somebody may have shot at the house from the direction of the fleeing cars, Ferguson noted.

A neighbor also told police that a young black man ran through his yard, carrying a small baseball bat and firing what appeared to be a high-powered handgun toward the Cramm home during last week's melee, a witness statement filed Monday says.

"From the defense lawyer's perspective, that is encouraging," Ferguson said. "It confirms what I was led to believe."

The search warrant shows police found numerous weapons at the scene, including firearms hidden around the Cramm yard, a metal pipe with nails driven through one end, a baseball bat, tire iron, golf club and wooden dowels.