New information has emerged in the fatal shooting of a Vancouver man at a house in the Hearthwood neighborhood last weekend that indicates the slaying was premeditated, a Clark County prosecutor said Friday.
The man accused of pulling the trigger, TJ Patrick Ferres, 55, on Friday was arraigned in Superior Court on a charge of first-degree murder in connection with the death of his friend, 37-year-old Ian Patrick McKay.
Deputy Prosecutor Patrick Robinson previously stated that alcohol consumption likely played a role in the shooting. On Friday, he said the evidence now shows that Ferres retrieved a shotgun from another room before the shooting, and stomped on the victim’s head after he was shot, two actions that show he intended to kill McKay.
Ferres’ court-appointed defense attorney argued that Ferres was acting in self-defense in his own home.
Court records show that Vancouver police responded shortly after 4 a.m. Sunday to a disturbance involving a weapon at Ferres’ residence in the 14900 block of Northeast Fifth Street. When officers arrived, they found a man, later identified as McKay, lying on the floor in the kitchen with a gunshot wound to the side of his body. First responders with the Vancouver Fire Department pronounced McKay dead at the scene.
The Clark County medical examiner confirmed the following day that he died of a gunshot wound to the torso.
New details
Both Ferres and his girlfriend, Katherine Louise Farha Deal, 56, were taken to the Vancouver Police Department’s East Precinct to be interviewed.
Ferres told detectives he had several friends over to his home the evening prior, including McKay, and they all went to a nearby bar on Southeast Mill Plain Boulevard, after playing board games. Ferres, Deal and McKay all returned to his house at about 1 a.m., according to the updated probable cause affidavit in support of the charge.
McKay was too intoxicated to drive his vehicle, Ferres said, so he let him stay the night. Deal went to bed about a half-hour later, leaving the men in the kitchen, court records state.
Between then and the 911 call, “there was an interaction between (Ferres) and (McKay) in the kitchen causing (Ferres) to be ‘scared.’ Other than saying (McKay) kept getting weird, (Ferres) could not articulate or provide details as to how or why (McKay) scared him,” the affidavit reads.
Ferres said that during their conversation, he kept looking McKay in the eye and telling McKay he was scaring him. “He scared me so much that I keep a shotgun next to my bed,” Ferres told detectives.
After Ferres left the kitchen, he walked to his bedroom and grabbed a pump action shotgun. Ferres returned to the kitchen, pumped the gun and aimed it at McKay’s midsection. He was about 10 to 15 feet away from McKay when he fired once, striking McKay, according to court documents. Ferres walked back to the master bedroom to where Deal was, and he asked her to call 911, he said.
Deal told detectives that Ferres woke her up and asked her to call for help because he said he shot McKay in the kitchen. When she went to the kitchen, she found McKay lying on the floor, unresponsive. She said that while she was on the phone with dispatchers, she saw Ferres stomp on McKay’s head several times, the affidavit states.
Arraignment
On Friday, Rucker requested to move up his client’s arraignment a week early. Ferres, who appeared wearing an orange jumpsuit, entered a not-guilty plea to first-degree murder with a deadly weapon.
Robinson argued that Ferres’ bail should increase from $750,000 to $1.5 million. Ferres is facing a most serious offense, he said, that carries a minimum sentence of 25 years in prison, which includes a 60-month firearm enhancement.
Rucker said it would be inappropriate to raise Ferres’ bail, in part because there is no evidence he intends to flee if he’s released.
Judge Daniel Stahnke set Ferres’ bail at $1 million. His trial is scheduled to start March 22.
