EVERETT — A judge says a man who was shot by a Snohomish County sheriff’s deputy can’t have his guns back yet.
Gene Fagerlie was in court Thursday to request that the multiple firearms police seized from his house be turned over to his father. Snohomish County Superior Court Judge Ellen Fair was told that Fagerlie needs to sell the guns to pay growing legal costs.
The Stanwood man is facing multiple felony charges stemming from a run-in with police outside his home in August 2013. He is scheduled to go to trial next month.
Prosecutors allege that Fagerlie, 37, pointed a gun at Snohomish County sheriff’s deputies. His ex-girlfriend called 911 after Fagerlie reportedly fired a bullet near her. She warned dispatchers that Fagerlie was armed and wearing a bulletproof vest.
Deputy Art Wallin shot at Fagerlie multiple times and struck him in the hand. The defendant maintains that he was lowering his weapon when Wallin opened fire.
Police recovered three guns near where Fagerlie fell. They found more than a dozen others inside the house and some along a fence line on the property, court papers said.
The bulk of the guns were found in a safe inside his bathroom closet and aren’t relevant to the events that unfolded outside, Everett defense attorney Mark Mestel said Thursday.
“He never displayed those firearms and they have nothing to do with the case,” Mestel said.
Also excluded from the defense’s request were two shotguns with illegally shortened barrels.
His client isn’t a felon and he legally owned the guns, Mestel said.
The prosecutor either wants to trot out all 18 guns to prejudice the jury, or he doesn’t want Fagerlie to be able to pay his lawyer, he said.
Snohomish County deputy prosecutor Randy Yates argued that although not all of the guns were used to assault the deputy they do show that Fagerlie intended to harm any police officers who came to his house. They also may be relevant to refute Fagerlie’s claims that he wasn’t aiming at the deputies, Yates said.
Fair said it wasn’t up to her to decide which guns were relevant to the case. That is better left up to the trial judge, she said.
She asked Yates about using photographs of the guns at trial.
“A picture does not do justice to the power of an actual firearm. The jury should be able to see that the firearms collected were not toy guns,” Yates had written in court documents.
Fair said that she couldn’t make the prosecutor use photographs.
“Unfortunately, I think I’m going to have to deny the order,” the judge said.
Fagerlie is out on bail pending trial. He has no prior felony convictions.
Diana Hefley: 425- 339-3463; hefley@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @dianahefley.
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