KIRO TV
July 13, 2015
The lawyer for a man suspected of killing two women – including his grandmother – told a judge there’s no evidence linking his client to the crimes, so he should be let out of jail.
Marcus Naylor, of Northwest Defenders, told King County Superior Court Judge Mark Chow in a downtown Seattle jail courtroom Thursday that he disagreed with probable cause arguments that his client, Zachary Damien Craven, had anything to do with the murders of two women earlier this week. Craven was arrested early Wednesday and is suspected of shooting 59-year old Angelika Hayden in Skyway and 21-year old Meagan Smith in Renton.
Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Aubony Burns argued for a high bail, claiming a piggy bank connects Craven to Smith’s death. Burns said the fact Craven is Hayden’s grandson and has threatened to kill her before connects him to her death.
According to court documents, both women died of gunshot wounds to the head.
When Smith was found inside a Renton home where she was house-sitting late Tuesday, her body was near a piggy bank. Investigators allege Craven had demanded the contents of that bank from Smith’s friend, who lives in the Renton home. That young woman and Craven once dated.
“The only thing out of place was that piggy bank,” Burns said in open court. “This piggy bank was the same item in question the defendant and the ex-girlfriend had talked about prior to her vacation.”