EVERETT — A former Everett man with a long history of sex crimes pleaded not guilty Monday to the killings of two Snohomish County women more than 17 years ago.
Danny Ross Giles, 44, entered the pleas during a brief hearing in Snohomish County Superior Court.
Judge Ellen Fair set the convicted rapist’s bail at $4 million.
Giles was charged Wednesday with two counts of first-degree murder connected to the July 1995 stabbing death of Patti Berry and the May 1995 disappearance of Tracey Brazzel.
Giles in 1995 frequented Kodiak Ron’s, which was then located south of Everett at the intersection of Highway 99 and Airport Road. That’s where Brazzel, 22, was last seen alive. The same is true of Berry, 26, who was spotted at a convenience store in the same block, where she went looking for air to fill a leaking tire on her car, according to court papers.
Giles wasn’t a suspect in either case until 2008. That’s when tests found his DNA allegedly mixed with Berry’s on the steering wheel of her car. The steering wheel had been taken as evidence when her blood-spattered car was found tucked behind a south Everett car wash. The statistical probability of a random match to Giles was calculated at 1 in 580 million, according to court papers.
The link to Brazzel came in 2010 after cold-case detectives requested tests on the blood droplets found in 1995 on the outside of Brazzel’s car. The blood contained Giles’ DNA, and the statistical probability of a random match was calculated at 1 in 56 quadrillion, prosecutors say.
Giles learned of the charges on Friday when detectives showed up at the state’s Special Commitment Center on McNeil Island. He’s been locked up there since 2011, awaiting a separate civil trial to determine whether he is a sexually violent predator.
Giles already has served prison time for a 1987 rape of Lynnwood woman he surprised while she was in a tanning bed, for burglarizing the locker room at a Bellevue health club in 1994, and for exposing himself to two college-aged women near the University of Washington in 2005. His record also includes peeping and other offenses against women and girls, starting in his teens and continuing into middle age.
Giles repeatedly has refused sex offender treatment offered inside and outside of prison, according to court papers.
He was expressionless on Monday when the judge asked him to enter a plea. He sat back and stared at the table in front of him while the deputy prosecutor and public defender worked with the judge to schedule next steps.
His trial, for now, is scheduled for Jan. 4.
Scott North; 425-339-3431, north@heraldnet.com.
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