PORT ANGELES — A Jefferson County man has been arrested on investigation of second-degree murder in the May death of a Sequim man following an alleged assault in a parking lot.
Aaron C. Fisher, 36, of Port Townsend was taken into custody in the SeaTac area on Wednesday after a warrant was issued for his arrest in Clallam County Superior Court.
Sequim police officers, working with a King County special investigations unit, initially booked Fisher into the King County Jail before he was transported to the Clallam County Jail, where he was being held on Thursday on $500,000 bond.
Fisher is being investigated in the death of Richard G. Madeo, 70, who died at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle on May 8, two days after Fisher allegedly punched him in the face and knocked him unconscious, according to court documents.
An autopsy was performed May 9 by the King County Medical Examiner’s office and determined the manner of death as homicide.
“Autopsy revealed blunt force injuries of the head,” court documents stated. “A formal Neuropathology examination revealed multiple intracranial injuries including subdural and subarachnoid hemorrhage, cortical contusions, cerebral edema and herniation.”
Fisher was arrested at the scene on May 6 on investigation of second-degree assault but was exonerated on May 9, according to court records.
At the same time, the investigation remained open.
“Detectives have been conducting follow-up interviews and analyzing crucial video evidence,” the Sequim Police Department said in a prepared statement on Thursday.
Sequim police and Clallam County Fire District 3 responded about 12:25 p.m. on May 6 to the reported assault in the 500 block of West Washington Street near Westside Pizza, where Madeo was on the ground after the alleged fight, according to court documents.
Madeo was bleeding from the mouth, breathing while unconscious and had a fresh laceration to the back of his head, the probable cause statement said.
Fisher told Sequim Police Officer Stephanie Benes that he was walking across the driveway into the shopping plaza when Madeo drove up quickly and stopped about 1 to 2 feet away, and they exchanged hand gestures and shouting, according to court documents.
Madeo allegedly stopped the truck again, got out to confront Fisher, and Fisher punched him in the face.
“Where did you hit him?” Benes asked Fisher.
“Square in the chin,” Fisher responded, according to court documents. “I mean, I’ve been in a hundred fights. I know where, I mean. It was self-defense.”
When medics arrived, they transported Madeo for Life Flight, according to court documents. Later that evening, Harborview Medical Center advised that Madeo was on life support with a breathing machine and showed minimal brain activity, according to court documents.
The punch was not clear from surveillance footage, court documents stated, but “Fisher’s statements on scene clearly admit that he struck Madeo in the face hard enough to knock him to the ground, where Madeo then sustained a brain injury.”
Additional witness interviews between May 8 and July 11 revealed similar stories, including a woman with a background in emergency medical services who applied three or four sternum rubs before Madeo began breathing on his own, according to court documents. She stayed with Madeo until paramedics from Clallam County Fire District 3 arrived, court documents said.
One witness said Madeo fell “like a tree” straight back after he was hit, according to court documents.
The man didn’t think much of him falling until Madeo’s head hit the pavement.
“I will never forget that sound,” the man told Sequim police Det. Devin McBride.
“It was completely one-sided, and that’s the way to put it,” the man said, according to court documents. “There was clearly one person that was aggressed and one person that was the aggressor.”
