EDMONDS — A homeless man accused of slicing open a pizza delivery driver’s stomach has been charged with attempted murder.
Prosecutors allege that Christopher Cowan stabbed the victim three times when he was caught breaking into the man’s car behind a Domino’s Pizza. The victim stumbled back to the restaurant, fell to the ground and applied pressure to the gaping wound in his abdomen. His coworkers called 911.
Cowan, 34, left behind a trail of clues that helped detectives find him four days later, court papers said. Police found a blood-stained shirt in his backpack and a folding knife in his pocket. Both items were sent to the Washington State Patrol crime lab for testing.
Cowan told officers he had been at Andy’s Motel on Jan. 17 and never left the room.
The night of the attack, the victim had gone out back to where his electric car was charging behind the pizza restaurant. He spotted someone rummaging around inside. He pulled the person out and the two scuffled. Cowan reportedly was armed with a knife and stabbed the man three times before running off.
Prosecutors allege that Cowan intended to kill the man. They charged him Friday with attempted first-degree murder.
An officer and his police dog, Hobbs, tracked the suspect’s scent to an apartment complex. There police found a witness who reported seeing someone matching Cowan’s description running and stumbling. Cowan sat down on some steps and told the witness someone had robbed him of his marijuana and asked if the tenant would call a cab for him.
The witness said the man was holding a knife. Cowan emptied his pockets before walking away, leaving behind some items taken from the victim’s car, Snohomish County deputy prosecutor Craig Matheson wrote in court papers.
A canvass of the neighborhood revealed that Cowan had gone to a gas station and asked the clerk to call him a cab. He left behind a pawn slip bearing his name and date of birth. Armed with his photograph and name, officers found Cowan walking in Shoreline on Jan. 21.
He was carrying the backpack he was seen wearing the night of the stabbing. Inside, was a shirt that matched the one he reportedly wore during the crime. There was blood on the sleeve.
Without prompting Cowan reportedly said, “I damn sure ain’t stabbed nobody. I don’t need to stab a person, nothing like that, when my hands are just as good, dude,” Matheson wrote.
Cowan has multiple felony convictions out of North Carolina. He was being held on $1 million bail.
Diana Hefley: 425-339-3463, hefley@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @dianahefley
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
