Kent Man Charged in Fatal Beating Less Than Two Weeks After Being Released From Prison

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A Kent man who is an experienced boxer was charged Tuesday with beating his roommate to death 13 days after he was last released from prison, according to King County prosecutors.

Kent police arrested Phillip Frazier, 59, early Friday at a "transitional home" in the 27600 block of 123rd Avenue Southeast and booked him into the King County Jail, where he is being held in lieu of $4 million bail, records show.

Charged with second-degree murder domestic violence, Frazier is scheduled to be arraigned May 26. Court records do not yet indicate which attorney is representing him.

Danny Jones, 60, was half Frazier's size and died early Friday from blunt force trauma to his head and neck, charging papers say.

The confrontation between the men, who shared a bedroom, arose from Jones' annoyance that Frazier had again awakened him with noise from a candy wrapper, according to the charges.

"As his roommate voiced his frustration and anger, the defendant reacted by slamming his roommate back onto his bed and hitting him with his fist multiple times to the side of his head," Senior Deputy Prosecutor Jason Brookhyser wrote in charging papers.

Frazier is 6-foot-3 and 290 pounds, while Jones was 5-foot-8 and 135 pounds, say the charges, which note Frazier acknowledged in an interview with police detectives that Jones did not represent a physical threat to his safety.

"Moreover, the defendant described for detectives his experience as a heavyweight boxer," which made him confident "that his fists alone could cause catastrophic damage to another human being," Brookhyser wrote.



The manager of Frazier and Jones' Department of Corrections transitional house called 911 late Thursday to report a physical fight between two residents, the charges say. Police found Jones unconscious on his bedroom floor, where he died despite officers' attempts to save him, according to the charges.

Police detained Frazier, who had dried blood on his hands, arms and face and was treated at Valley Medical Center for a broken right hand, according to the charges.

Frazier told detectives that Jones had gone to bed early while Frazier watched Netflix on his cellphone, the charges say. Frazier got hungry and grabbed a bag of Reese's Pieces candy from his nightstand, waking Jones up as he manipulated the packaging, according to the charges.

Jones had repeatedly complained about Frazier waking him up during the 13 days they had roomed together, the charges say.

The two men argued, and Frazier pinned Jones to his mattress and punched him in the head multiple times, according to the charges.

Court records show Frazier served prison time for trying to burn down his parents' Shoreline house in 2006 and, most recently, pleaded guilty last year to felony violation of a domestic-violence lifetime protection order granted to his mother.

Charging papers in the most recent case say Frazier has spent much of his adult life in custody, including prison stints in Tennessee and California, and has previously had trouble readjusting to life in the community.