SEATTLE — A 26-year-old man is being held on a bail of $250,000 in the King County Jail after a judge found probable cause Tuesday for charges of robbery and assault in connection with an unprovoked set of attacks near a West Seattle grocery store.
Jiminson Calix Bodden was arrested after police responded to a reported stabbing and robbery outside of the PCC Market on California Avenue SW Monday afternoon.
“When our community members walk on the street to go to the store, to go to an appointment, or pick up their children, they should not have to fear that a stranger is going to stab them unprovoked,” said Julia Zimny, a King County Deputy Prosecuting Attorney.
According to police, Calix stabbed a 47-year-old man in the arm and then stole a woman’s phone while grabbing her arm. Seattle police raced to the area and used a K9 to track Calix into a nearby neighborhood, where witnesses reported he was running through yards.
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The man was taken to Harborview Medical Center for treatment, though police said his injuries are not life-threatening.
“The allegations are that he randomly stabbed an individual walking down the street, and after stabbing him, he said ‘did it hurt,'” Judge Jill Klinge said at Tuesday’s first appearance hearing.
Klinge denied the request from a public defender to release Calix on his own recognizance and set his bail at $250,000, which was half of the $500,000 that prosecutors requested.
McKay Campbell of the Northwest Defenders Division said the evidence connecting Calix to the stabbing and robbery was weak.
On the assault, stabbing allegations, we have essentially nothing connecting my client to the offense,” Campbell said. “The only connection is that the stabbing victim was described as a ‘similar looking suspect’ … at no point did they recover any knife, which you would presume they would be able to locate with knife tracking. Reportedly, there was also a lot of blood from this stabbing, according to the complaining witness in that case. There’s no allegation that there’s blood on my client. There’s no allegation that there’s blood on the property recovered from my client.
Judge Klinge noted that the police report says the two victims were very close to each other at the same time, and both gave the same description of the suspect.
There was also a discrepancy over Calix’s criminal history. Prosecutors said he has pending charges in Snohomish County, but Campbell disputed that by saying those cases had not actually been filed.
The King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office is reviewing charges.
