EVERETT — Prosecutors on Friday charged an Everett man with aggravated murder for a shooting last month that left two people dead and injured a third.
Kevin Odneal and Irene Halvorson were gunned down outside the Everett home Odneal shared with his mother. A second woman was seriously wounded. The house, located in the 2400 block of 75th Street SE, has been the scene of two other deadly shootings since 2008.
Prosecutors allege that Tye Patrick Fleischer ambushed the victims as they approached his van parked outside Odneal’s house. Detectives recovered 10 shell casings at the scene. A security camera trained on the driveway captured the shooting. The video is too dark and grainy to be used to identify the shooter, Snohomish County deputy prosecutor Craig Matheson wrote in charging papers.
Fleischer, however, allegedly confessed to a 911 dispatcher that he shot two people at “Faulty Kevin’s” house. When the operator asked why, Fleischer allegedly said, “OK, so I am a junkie. I got clean. My kids deserve a better father. I am just taking a couple of pieces of (expletive) that (expletive) hurt and kill people out while I’m doing it because I know these people really well and I know these people have done it. So on that note, I apologize if I caused you guys a bunch of (expletive) grief.”
Fleischer, 37, knew Odneal and the woman who survived, according to court papers. Odneal reportedly was romantically involved with Fleischer’s estranged wife several months before the shooting. Odneal reportedly was in a relationship with the woman who was injured. She and Fleischer were good friends, Matheson wrote.
Fleischer is a felon with history of drug use and property crimes. His last conviction came in 2012 when he was found with methamphetamine during a traffic stop.
Odneal, 50, was well-known to Everett police. He has been at the center of numerous drug and stolen property investigations. Detectives were at this home in December investigating an illegal chop shop operation.
A witness told police the woman who survived was at Odneal’s house to buy drugs. That witness reportedly was parked near the scene and saw the shooting.
Court papers say that after the gunfire, Fleischer drove away from the scene and called 911. He allegedly threatened to kill himself while on the phone with an emergency operator. He refused to give the dispatcher his name, saying when police found his body they’d be able to identify him by the driver’s license in his wallet.
Fleischer hung up but Everett police Capt. Greg Lineberry was able to call him back and talked Fleischer out of killing himself, court papers said. He surrendered to police at Forest Park, a few miles from Odneal’s house.
Detectives found a 9mm semi-automatic handgun in van. The magazine was capable of holding 15 rounds. There were only five left. The gun appeared to be jammed and was inoperable when police took it from Fleischer’s van.
Forensic testing on the shell casings and the gun are underway.
Snohomish County Prosecutor Mark Roe said Friday that he hasn’t decided whether to seek the death penalty. Fleischer is charged with two counts of aggravated murder and one count of attempted first-degree murder. If convicted as charged, the only possible punishments are life behind bars or execution.
“Those are important decisions. I don’t make them until I consider all the information that I ought to,” Roe said Friday.
The moratorium on the death penalty imposed by Gov. Jay Inslee will not play into his decision, the prosecutor said.
Fleischer is expected to be arraigned next week. Roe will have a month to notify Fleischer’s attorneys if he plans to seek the death penalty. The defense could agree to a delay in order to gather mitigation materials to persuade the prosecutor not to seek execution.
The last death penalty case in Snohomish County was for the 2011 killing of Monroe corrections officer Jayme Biendl. She was strangled in the prison chapel by an inmate serving a life sentence. A jury sentenced the convicted rapist to die in 2013. He remains on death row at Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla.
Diana Hefley: 425-339-3463, hefley@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @dianahefley
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