MARYSVILLE — Four years after his mother’s death, prosecutors late last month refiled second-degree murder charges against a Marysville man previously deemed incompetent to stand trial.
Police arrested Nathan Granum, 32, on a warrant last month in the killing of Laura Granum in 2020. The charges come three years after a judge dismissed the case due to his long-documented battle with mental illness.
The defendant’s public defender, Cassie Trueblood, urged Snohomish County Superior Court Millie Judge to dismiss the charges again, arguing her client still isn’t mentally competent to stand trial and prosecutors shouldn’t have filed new charges.
On Monday, the judge ruled the case could go forward. Nathan Granum is set to get another competency evaluation this month. His next court hearing is set for July 18.
The defendant’s mental health records go back to 1998, including signs of paranoid schizophrenia during a psychological evaluation in 2016, according to court documents.
Around 2 p.m. June 25, 2020, the defendant’s mother, 62, was going to get paperwork to evict her son from their home in the 12800 block of 48th Avenue NE, according to charging papers. They had been fighting for some time.
About five hours later, Nathan Granum’s brother noticed their mother still wasn’t home. He went to the garage and reportedly noticed his brother was acting nervous. He asked about their mother and Nathan Granum told him, “Don’t worry about it,” charges say.
Outside the house, the brother noticed his mother’s Kia Optima parked in an odd spot in the driveway. When he approached the vehicle, he saw a handcart next to the trunk with blood on it, the brother told police. He opened the trunk and found his mother’s body.
Investigators found a bloody palm print matching Nathan Granum’s on the Kia’s trunk.
The Snohomish County Medical Examiner’s Office determined Laura Granum died of blunt force trauma.
In an interview with police, Nathan Granum said he was scared of being homeless, but didn’t hurt his mother. He said multiple times “he heard voices for years telling him mean things and that someone should kill his mother,” according to court papers.
He claimed either terrorists or hit men “beat her to death and stomped on her,” according to charges.
In September 2020, a judge civily commited Nathan Granum to Western State Hospital. After multiple stays there, a judge dismissed the murder charges, involuntarily committing him to the hospital. The charges were dismissed without prejudice, meaning they could later be refiled if Nathan Granum made progress. He remained in the hospital for three years.
Nathan Granum had been set to move to a less restrictive facility to continue treatment in late June. Instead, local prosecutors refiled the murder charges, so he was booked back into the Snohomish County Jail.
Herald editor Jake Goldstein-Street contributed to this report.
Maya Tizon: 425-339-3434; maya.tizon@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @mayatizon.
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