In some criminal cases, the motive is clear. But there are times, even through law enforcement’s efforts, that investigators are unable to determine why a crime occurred.
They can answer the who, what, when, where and how, but not the why. The only person who knows why is the defendant — Arkangel Howard — Senior Deputy Prosecutor Kasey Vu told jurors Wednesday during opening statements in Howard’s double murder trial in Clark County Superior Court.
Howard is accused in the March 19 fatal shootings of two Portland-area men: Allen J. Collins, 37, and Jason D. Benton, 42. The incident quickly unfolded at an east Vancouver apartment complex, where Howard’s girlfriend lived.
He is charged with two counts of first-degree murder and unlawful possession of a firearm.
Vu said that Howard was helping his girlfriend, Valerie Sizemore, move from her apartment in the 1400 block of Northeast 140th Avenue when shortly after 5 p.m., multiple people called 911 to report hearing gunshots close by.
One neighbor said he came outside and saw a woman and man standing in the parking lot next to a silver Toyota Prius with a roof rack. The woman, identified as Sizemore, said something along the lines of, “I can’t believe you just did that!” The man, later identified by police as Howard, was then seen fleeing in the Prius, which belonged to Sizemore, Vu said.
Minutes later, neighbors discovered Collins and Benton lying on the ground in the parking lot with gunshot wounds to their heads. One witness, who is a nurse’s assistant, attempted to render aid, but one of the victims was already dead. The other was unconscious but breathing; he died before police arrived, Vu told the jury.
A neighbor, who had been walking in the area, said he, too, saw a woman and man standing in the parking lot; the man appeared to be holding a handgun. The witness became scared and ran away, Vu said, but heard multiple gunshots as he fled.
Sizemore told investigators Howard had left the apartment complex before the shooting to retrieve a pickup that a friend of hers was lending her for the move. However, Howard arrived back in the Prius. She said she heard arguing as she walked toward the parking lot and then Howard fired on the men, Vu said.
Howard fled before police arrived, but he was arrested March 30 at his mother’s home in Portland.
On May 10, a resident who lives at the property where Howard was arrested, stumbled upon what police believe to be the murder weapon. The man was retrieving his cat from under a shed on the property when he found a brown paper bag hidden underneath the shed. The bag contained a .45 caliber Hi-Point pistol — the same type used in the shooting, Vu said.
Defense attorney Chuck Buckley, co-counsel on the case, told the jury that much of the state’s evidence is police conjecture. And testimony from civilian witnesses will primarily be about what they heard and saw after the shooting; none of them saw Howard shoot the victims.
Buckley also argued that some of the physical evidence doesn’t align with what investigators or the prosecution believe happened.
Howard’s trial is expected to last two weeks.
