Darnell Keith Washington

In August 2012, Darnell Washington was arrested for armed robbery and receiving stolen property. While awaiting his upcoming trial, which he was due to stand on September 14, Washington was housed at the Glen Helen Rehabilitation Center in San Bernardino County.[2] On August 28, his wife Tania Washington visited him, and helped Darnell scale up a 10-foot high fence, where he jumped and escaped.[3]

After the guards realized Washington had escaped, an alert was put out for information to his whereabouts, with a physical description dispatched with his height at 6-foot-1, and his weight at around 185 pounds.[2] On September 2, at around 9 a.m. in South El Monte, Darnell and Tania were pulled over by Los Angeles County sheriff's Deputy John Marquez, who noticed them driving suspiciously. Upon calling Darnell out, Darnell exited the vehicle and shot Marquez with a shotgun before fleeing.[4] Marquez was wounded, but ultimately survived. A little while later, the couple carjacked a nearby vehicle, before abandoning it in South Gate, and later stealing another vehicle, according to some reports alleging it as a 1996 Plymouth Grand Voyager.[4]

On September 20, The Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office filed a warrant on the couple's arrest.[4] A week later, the couple robbed a Kmart in Pinole, fleeing the scene in a stolen pickup truck.[3] On October 5, the couple invaded the home of 55-year-old Susie Ko, a retired schoolteacher and a mother of four living in Hercules. According to the later convictions, it was Darnell who stabbed Ko a total of 21 times until her death, before stealing her car, a 2011 Subaru Outback, and attempting to flee up north.[5] The couple wounded up in Washington, where they were arrested in the suburb of SeaTac in Seattle.[6]