Federal Way man charged in May killing

Police have arrested a Federal Way man suspected of killing another Federal Way man in the early morning hours of May 20.

Leopoldo Martinez-Dominguez, 25, is charged with second-degree murder. He was arrested May 25. A judge set his bail at $2 million, and he is scheduled for arraignment June 12.

Prosecutors believe Martinez-Dominguez killed Roman Hurtado Hudai, 20, and dumped his body on a public trail in unincorporated King County near Auburn on May 20, leaving Hudai with nine gunshot wounds — seven of which to his head and neck, according to prosecutors.

Martinez-Dominguez reportedly planned to flee the state, but had confessed to a friend, while intoxicated, that he’d killed someone, charging documents allege.

A King County Sheriff’s Deputy report recounts the investigation beginning around 10:20 a.m. May 20, when residents at the 4300 block of South 294th Street in unincorporated Auburn reported finding a dead man behind their house.

Officers found the victim with gunshot wounds to the face and neck, and identified him as Hudai based on the ID in his wallet.

Residents reported hearing gunshots around 2:30 a.m. that morning, and seeing a white truck parked nearby their house and the trailhead to the path where Hudai was found. Detectives obtained surveillance footage of a light-colored truck passing by the home around that time, as well as the gunshots.

Further police work determined the truck’s license plate a few days later, and combined with location data from Hudai’s cell phone, police began putting together a timeline of what happened to Hudai. Surveillance footage showed Hudai appear to leave his residence at around 12:40 a.m. that morning and walk toward a Dodge Dakota, matching the description of the same light-colored truck, near his home.

Minutes later, based on surveillance footage, prosecutors say the truck entered the parking lot of the 21st Avenue SW Fred Meyer. Several bright flashes appeared to come from the cabin of the truck around 1:01 a.m. on the surveillance footage, according to prosecutors.

Police later found the truck at 1901 SW 320 Street in Federal Way at the Sunset Three Twenty Apartments, with evidence of blood splatter visible on the interior of the vehicle. State crime lab analysis showed results consistent with Hudai being shot from the driver’s seat while he sat in the front passenger seat, and Martinez-Dominguez had lived at the apartment complex, police say.

Police also spoke with a witness who said that Martinez-Dominguez, a friend of her husband, had given her husband a pistol and “indicated that he had killed someone over the weekend,” according to charging documents.

Officers arrested Martinez-Dominguez, who admitted to picking up Hudai late the evening of May 19 in his white Dakota truck. He said he had nothing to do with Hudai’s death. However, Martinez-Dominguez said that he picked up a stranger at the 336th Street Safeway on Hudai’s request, who he allowed to borrow the truck. That stranger, Martinez-Dominguez said, returned the truck the following afternoon with a newly broken window and handed Martinez-Dominguez a pistol. The stranger, Martinez-Dominguez said, told him to get rid of the pistol and fix the window or the stranger would kill him.

No video footage from that Safeway backed up Martinez-Dominguez’s account of the evening, and the earlier witness’s husband told investigators that Martinez-Dominguez asked that witness to hold his pistol for him, admitting that he’d just killed someone with it.

That witness told police that Martinez-Dominguez came back three days later asking for the pistol back, and added that he intended to leave the state.