EVERETT — An escort is accused of shooting an Everett man twice in the head after he hired her for sex.
She left him to die at his apartment, according to a probable cause statement filed in court Wednesday.
He was found three days later, alive, but unable to speak. At a hospital, a scan revealed two bullets lodged in his head. Officers were able to communicate with the man, 36, through hand signals and head motions.
Detectives believe the alleged call girl, Marissa Wallen, 21, shot the man and stole his wallet to go on a $12,000 spending spree in Skagit County.
Security footage from the man’s apartment revealed the woman had visited five times in October. Cameras showed her entering the apartment for the last time at 8:45 p.m. Oct. 21, and she ran out the door at 10 p.m. clutching what appeared to be credit cards, according to the probable cause statement.
Over the next three days, no one heard from the man. Motion-activated cameras suggest no one visited the apartment in that time.
The man’s employer grew concerned when he didn’t log in for his stay-at-home job on the morning of Oct. 24. An officer went to the home in the 800 block of Hawthorne Street. His mother also called 911 around that time. She feared he might have had a medical emergency. Police opened the unlocked door to find the man slumped against a wall, with dried blood on his head. There were no obvious signs of a break-in. Two shell casings were found in the room. They did not match the caliber of the man’s handgun, which was missing.
At the hospital the man indicated he knew who shot him. He couldn’t communicate a name or any other info.
Friends and family told police the man rarely left his home. But lately, they said, he’d been visiting strip clubs in Seattle, where he’d tell the women about how much money he made. Detectives checked his bank accounts. Three of his credit cards had been charged 82 times in Mount Vernon and Burlington from Oct. 22 to Nov. 5.
Store security cameras showed the same woman, Wallen, using the cards, according to police. Officers tracked her down at a home in Mount Vernon.
In interviews, Wallen “changed her story each time she was confronted with evidence,” according to court papers.
Ultimately, she admitted he’d been paying her for sex. Wallen had gone to the apartment on Oct. 21, and she shot him twice in the back of the head, “because he was performing (a sex act) wrong,” according to her statement. She left him for dead on the bedroom floor and took his wallet, the court document says.
Police described Wallen as emotionless and calculating throughout the interview. She was arrested for investigation of first-degree assault, first-degree robbery and first-degree identity theft. She has lived in Skagit County her whole life. She has a young child.
“Eleven months,” she interjected at a court hearing Wednesday.
She has no felony convictions on her record. However, she’s listed as a defendant in 20 court cases in the past three years. Medical problems have prevented her from showing up to court at times, said a public defender, Pooja Vaddadi.
Everett District Court Judge Anthony Howard said he was concerned that Wallen had 13 active warrants out for her arrest, “which might be a record,” he said.
Howard set bail at $1 million. The woman had asked police to call one of her clients to help post bond.
Caleb Hutton: 425-339-3454; chutton@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @snocaleb.
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