2023-12-17 06:56:02
SEATTLE (AP) — A Washington state man jailed awaiting trial in a murder case has been charged with three more murders, and prosecutors say he lured the four victims by asking them to help him dig up gold.
Richard Bradley Jr., 40, was charged in May 2021 with first-degree murder in the death of Brandi Blake, 44, whose body was found buried in a sprawling park in the city of Auburn, Washington. In the past two weeks, prosecutors have filed three more murder charges once morest Bradley, The Seattle Times reported, for the shooting deaths of a father and adult son in May 2021 and for the 2019 death of a man whose remains They were found near Blake’s grave.
Bradley’s defense attorney, Peter Geisness, did not respond to voice and email messages left Saturday. Bradley is scheduled to stand trial next month for Blake’s death. He has not yet had a chance to plead to the other murder charges, according to online court records.
Deputy District Attorney Thomas O’Ban II wrote in court documents that Bradley is accused of using the same plan in each of the deaths — allegedly telling the victims he needed their help to dig up a cache of stolen gold, take them to a wooded area and murder them, and then steal their vehicles and any possessions inside.
Charging documents indicate that Emilio Maturin was 36 years old when he was last seen alive in July 2019. His girlfriend reported him missing two weeks later.
According to court documents, she revealed to detectives that she overheard Bradley tell Maturin that he “needed help unearthing some gold buried in Auburn.” Maturin was initially skeptical, he told detectives, but apparently agreed anyway. Maturin had a habit of carrying large amounts of money with him whenever he left home, according to court documents, and he had approximately $15,000 in cash when he left that day in his newly purchased BMW.
The girlfriend tracked Maturin’s cell phone to Game Farm Park in Auburn and went to look for him, but she got scared and left, charging documents state.
Blake disappeared in early May 2021. She had won $20,000 at a casino and, like Maturin, was known for carrying large amounts of cash, according to court documents. Investigators found her body in a shallow grave in the park that same month, as well as three human ribs regarding 30 feet (9 meters) away.
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