KOMO and area TV stations aired Sound Transit security video showing the deadly fight

Court proceedings in two widely followed area murder cases have continued this summer with important updates in each but no clear timeline for trial in either.

Shawn Patrick Moore, 26, pleaded not guilty to charges of second degree murder and intimidating a witness in the Capitol Hill Station stabbing this May that killed neighborhood chef Corey Bellett.

In the most recent proceedings in the case, the court is targeting a September trial for Moore — but continuance dates in complicated murder trials are frequently extended.

New attention on the case came earlier this month as Sound Transit released security video showing some of the altercation that led to the deadly attack in which prosecutors say Moore killed Bellett in a fight over a run-in on the escalator that grew into a brawl on the light rail platform.

Bellett, a 37-year-old restaurant worker on his way home after a Saturday brunch shift at Capitol Hill’s Harry’s Fine Foods, was remembered during a June fundraiser at the Bellevue Ave restaurant.

Prosecutors say Moore’s criminal history has included drug, traffic, and domestic violence charges.

Lawyers, meanwhile, submitted a letter from the suspect’s father saying Moore suffered from childhood trauma and was living homeless in Seattle after being the victim of a 2022 robbery in which all of his possession and his car was stolen at gunpoint.

Moore remains jailed on $3 million bail.

A judge says this photo taken by the Seattle Times did not violate a court-ordered prohibition on photographing the suspect because it was taken outside the courtroom

In the second major case underway this summer, 25-year-old Liam Kryger remains jailed without bail as his case moves forward in proceedings that will likely take much longer to play out.

CHS reported here in May as Kryger was charged in a second ax murder of a sleeping homeless man killed in late night attacks on area streets.

In the most recent proceedings in the case, the court has agreed to seal documents pertaining to “expert services” being utilized in the case, a ruling that is common in cases involving questions of mental health and competency.

Prosecutors say Kryger was previously arrested in 2018 for a violent burglary and stabbing in North Bend that placed him in a treatment program under supervision of the King County Mental Health Court. Kryger failed to attend a scheduled review hearing in late 2019 but managed to steer clear of the law until his arrest this winter during the ax murder investigations.

Mental health competency procedures can take years to play out in the court system. In 2009, CHS reported on the long process that led to restored competency and a guilty plea in the 2007 murder of Capitol Hill resident Shannon Harps.

Kryger’s defense team has also attempted to limit media coverage of the case and allege the Seattle Times violated a court order by photographing Kryger at a hearing appearance. The judge denied a requested hearing on the matter.

Like in Moore’s case, the court is currently planning a September trial for Kryger but that date is even less likely to stick given the additional complications of any mental health competency procedures.

The victims 52-year-old Daravuth Van and 68-year-old Paul Ewell were remembered as part of the need for humane approaches to addressing the city’s homelessness crisis. “The memory of Paul Ewell and Daravuth Van points to something we can’t lose sight of: When we dehumanize unhoused people, the stakes are literally life and death,” a remembrance of Van and Ewell from the United Way King County read.

Ewell is also remembered by neighborhood residents as the “14th Avenue Jesus” as he could be regularly seen with arms outstretched and singing gospel in the area. Here is how one CHS commenter remembered Ewell:

I’m gutted to read that one of the men was Paul Ewell, the harmless, kindly, and very godly man who walked up and down 14th Avenue singing gospel in an incredibly beautiful, clear, and projected voice. (Those who don’t live in the neighborhood might know of him as the man who occasionally stands on the center line of 14th Avenue, his hands raised up to God, singing as cars pass on either side.) Paul was a completely harmless, kind, and talented—albeit eccentric—fixture in the community of Squire Park, and deserved so much better than the dehumanizing treatment from this serial killer. Even when my windows were closed, I could hear his gorgeous voice coming down 14th Avenue, several blocks before he reached my home. It was clear as a bell, and I always stopped my work to listen and watch for him coming down the sidewalk. I’m not religious, but I often thought he had the voice of an angel on earth. It hurts to think of him sleeping, vulnerable, and alone, when he was attacked by a man with an axe.

“I truly hope his senseless death has one good outcome, and that’s to remind all of us that homeless people are human beings like us,” they wrote, “people with personalities, needs, dreams, and loves,”

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