A King County Superior Court jury convicted a 35-year-old Covington man of two counts of first-degree murder for shooting two homeless people in 2016 in Kent.
Bradley T. Shaw is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 24, according to the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office. He could be sentenced from 50 to 63 years, according to court documents. A jury convicted Shaw on Aug. 5.
Shaw killed Louisa Campos, 31, on Aug. 12, 2016 at a transient camp in the 22200 block of 88th Avenue South. He returned the next night to the camp and killed Robert Dias, 48.
Kent Police arrested Shaw on Aug. 12, 2017 one year after the killings. A previously unknown witness called Kent Police earlier in the day to report he had received a phone call from Shaw, who told him he had committed the killings, according to court documents. Shaw knew details about the crime scene that had not been released to the public.
Shaw described details of the shootings during a phone call he made to a former military buddy. He said he had been in a gas station and cut in line. He said he was drunk and some of the people present objected to him cutting in line. One individual confronted Shaw. Afterwards, Shaw followed that person (reportedly Campos) to where she lived.
The next night Shaw went to the homeless camp where Campos and Shaw had a dispute. Campos got up in his face. Shaw then shot Campos three times in the head and body.
Shaw told his friend he went back the next night to the camp looking for witnesses, and saw a guy squatting there, holding a baseball bat. Shaw said he shot the man. Dias was shot in the head and the hand.
Campos and Dias were each shot with the same weapon, a .45-caliber handgun. It’s that gun that apparently caused Shaw to call his military friend. Shaw said that weapon he used in the shootings had been taken from him by Kent Police when he was arrested for DUI on Jan. 30, 2017. He had a court hearing on the DUI case coming up on Aug. 17, 2017.
Shaw said he was worried police would use his DNA to link him to the crime scene of the shootings as well as match the bullets from his gun with the bullets recovered from the victims, Campos and Dias.
Shaw pleaded not guilty to the murders in 2017.
Prior to his arrest, Shaw reportedly told one witness that he was contemplating fleeing to Ireland because that country doesn’t allow extradition, and commented to the witness that he was Irish. Investigators examined Shaw’s cellphone records and learned he had conducted internet searches regarding different countries and extradition, including Ireland.
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