A 24-year-old Washington man pleaded guilty Monday in federal court to racketeering charges related to a series of home invasion robberies in the Puget Sound area in 2022, including allegedly killing an Everett woman while she was in bed.
Christopher Johnson faces up to life in prison under sentencing guidelines, but under the terms of his plea agreement prosecutors and defense attorneys are recommending a 25-year prison term. He is expected to be sentenced in May.
According to his plea, Johnson and his co-defendant, Kevin Thissel, targeted families based on social media posts and burst into their homes announcing themselves as police. Once inside, they restrained the residents with zip ties, according to the plea. Court documents indicated there were always at least three, and sometimes more" people committing the robberies.
Members of the ring often targeted Asian victims because they perceived them to be "weaker," according to court documents.
In one of the robberies, someone that was part of the robbery group allegedly shot and killed an Everett mother, 36-year-old Irah Marcello Sok, as she was lying in bed next to her 7-year-old child. The men then bound Sok's husband with zip ties and ransacked the house.
The crimes Johnson admitted to in the plea agreement include:
* May 24, 2022: The armed robbery of a family in Mount Vernon; the kidnapping of a young boy in connection with that robbery; and an attempted robbery on Mercer Island.
* May 27, 2022: The burglary of an unoccupied residence in Kent.
* June 19, 2022: The attempted burglary of an occupied residence in Kent.
* July 14, 2022: The armed robbery of a couple in Burien.
* July 28, 2022: The armed robbery of a woman in Kent, abducting the victim to force her to withdraw cash from ATMs.
* Aug 12, 2022: The robbery of two Kent residents who hid in a closet while their home was ransacked.
* Aug. 19, 2022: The Everett armed robbery and murder of Sok.
During the robbery in Mount Vernon, the men entered the home of a family of four and corralled them into the living room. The father was held at gunpoint while the intruders zip-tied the mother, 12-year-old daughter and 9-year-old son. During the robbery, they took the 9-year-old from the house, restraining him while they searched the car, stealing thousands in cash, jewelry, credit cards and identity documents.
In the July 14 robbery, one of the victims reportedly retrieved his handgun and confronted the intruders, but set the gun down when they announced they were "police. They then beat the man, pulled a naked woman from her bed, zip-tied the couple and held them at gunpoint while stealing their belongings, according to the plea agreement.
During the July 28 robbery and kidnapping, they woke up a woman and threatened to kill her family before driving her to ATMs and stealing valuables, according to the agreement.
Some of the criminal acts described in the plea agreement have not been formally charged but can be considered by a judge in determining Johnson's sentence and restitution.
The men are charged under the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, which is rarely used. Federal prosecutors in 2009 charged strip club magnate Frank Colacurcio Sr., his son and four associates with RICO. Before that, federal prosecutors tried a RICO case in 2006 that was used to break up a violent local chapter of the Hells Angels outlaw motorcycle club.
RICO allows federal prosecutors to sweep up crimes that might otherwise not qualify for federal jurisdiction — state charges of robbery or homicide, for example — into a federal case against an organization and its leaders committing those crimes.
Under the terms of the plea agreement, Johnson will also plead guilty to second-degree murder in Snohomish County Superior Court for the August 2022 killing of Sok. Both sides will also recommend a 25-year sentence to run concurrent with the federal sentence. After he is sentenced in the Snohomish County case, he will be returned to federal custody and sentenced in the U.S. District Court case, the plea agreement states.
Johnson's co-defendant, Thissel, has a jury trial scheduled to start in November.
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