Trial starts for man accused of Kent Shell station murders

A jury trial began on Monday for the 31-year-old Burien man charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the August 2014 shooting deaths of two Shell service station employees in Kent.

Leland Dean Russell Jr., dressed in a dark gray suit, sat next to defense attorney Leta Schattauer as he listened to an opening statement by King County senior deputy prosecutor Karissa Taylor about what the jury can expect to see and hear over the next four to five weeks in King County Superior Court at Kent’s Maleng Regional Justice Center.

Carlos Gonzalez, 26, a store clerk, and David Christianson, 52, the store manager, were shot and killed on a Wednesday morning after they had asked two men to leave the store because the pair had started arguments with other customers. Prosecutors alleged a fistfight broke out between Gonzalez and Dale D. Lewis Jr., then 19, just outside the busy store at the corner of 64th Avenue South and South 212th Street.

Christianson tried to break up the fight. Meanwhile, Russell reportedly went to his black Cadillac he had parked near the gas pumps, retrieved a handgun and approached the fight.

“He ran straight to Dave Christianson and without warning or hesitation shot Dave four times – in the arm, his back, his leg and his face,” Taylor said during her nearly 30-minute opening statement before the jury and Judge Vernonica Alicea Galvaz. “And as Dave dropped to the ground, the defendant moved around his friend Dale Lewis and headed straight toward Carlos and again without hesitation or warning, shot Carlos Gonzalez four times – in his shoulder, his wrist and twice in the chest.”

Both employees died at the scene.

“You are going to hear from witnesses who were outside at the gas pumps and saw and heard the defendant’s aggressive posturing,” Taylor said. “You will also hear from witnesses inside the station who heard and saw the defendant’s accusations and anger.”

Taylor also explained that jurors will watch evidence of the shootings captured by 11 video surveillance cameras at the station.

“You will see everything from the buildup, to the shootings and the murders themselves,” she said. “You will see what happened inside the store where Rainier Industries and FedEx employees were yelled at by the defendant. … You will see the fight erupt and then you will watch the murders of Dave and Carlos at the defendant’s hands.

“Frankly, this video is graphic and violent and unsettling. But it is one of the best pieces of evidence of what happened that day.”

Taylor said prosecutors also will show that Russell, earlier in the day before the shootings, assaulted a woman at an intersection in Burien after he had cut her off in his Cadillac. The woman honked her horn, which caused Russell to allegedly get out of his car, walk toward the woman and point a gun at her before she quickly backed up her vehicle to get away. A King County Sheriff’s Office detective helped tie that assault to the Kent shooting deaths based on witnesses descriptions of the suspect in both cases.

Schattauer, the defense attorney, gave an opening statement of less than four minutes. But she emphasized it was Lewis and not Russell who came out of the Cadillac in Burien and chased down the woman. She added that both men then went to the Shell station and that Russell shot Gonzalez and Christianson, but that neither shooting was premeditated as prosecutors claim in their first-degree murder charges.

Schattauer didn’t go into any details with the jury about how she plans to show the murders were not premeditated.

Russell, who is Hispanic, admitted to Kent detectives after they arrested him later in the day in Burien after the shootings, that he shot both men. Kent Police tracked down Russell through witness statements, video surveillance and his driver’s license photo. Russell said he shot the two men to stand up and protect his friend, a black man, who had been disrespected by store customers who used racist language toward his friend. And when Russell saw his friend in a fist fight, he had to step up.

Taylor told the jury Russell saw the fight as a “moment to prove how tough he is.”

Detectives found the gun allegedly used in the shootings at a Burien drug house where Russell had visited and ditched the gun. Police found a black Cadillac at his home that matched the car described by witnesses and shown in the video.

If convicted as charged, Russell faces a sentence range of 55-68 years, according to the prosecuting attorney’s office.

The trial could go into the fourth week of August, said senior deputy prosecuting attorney Jessica Berliner, who is handling the case along with Taylor.

Russell remains in custody at the county jail in Kent with bail set at $1 million.