King County prosecutors today filed charges of first-degree murder and first-degree burglary against a 26-year-old Auburn man for allegedly breaking in to his ex-girlfriend’s Federal Way apartment on Feb. 24 and then shooting and killing the woman’s current boyfriend.
Michael Ray Fiorini is in jail at the Norm Maleng Regional Justice Center on $2.5 million bail. According to the King County Medical Examiner’s Office, Christopher D. Johnson, 27, died from a single gunshot wound to the chest.
Arraignment is scheduled for 9 a.m. March 14 in courtroom GA at the justice center.
According to the certification for determination of probable cause statement filed with charging papers, the woman and Fiorini lived together for some time after high school but broke up in 2004 following a domestic violence incident. The two, however, remained in periodic contact.
At about 3:15 a.m., according to the statement, Fiorini allegedly broke the sliding glass door to his ex-girlfriend’s apartment at the Habitat Condominiums at 33005 18th Place S. He then entered, confronted his ex-girlfriend, 27, who was lying on the couch, pointed a gun at her and told her to “shut up.”
According to the statement, Johnson, who had been sleeping in the bedroom, heard his girlfriend scream, came out and approached the woman and Fiorini, the statement says. According to the statement, Fiorini then shot Johnson in the chest.
Police later found Johnson on the floor of the bedroom. Medical personnel could not revive him and pronounced him dead at the scene.
A K-9 unit tracked Fiorini from the apartment to some bushes where he had been hiding, about one-tenth of a mile east of the crime scene. Fiorini was armed with a 9-mm pistol, and police found a spent cartridge case in the chamber of the gun, according to the statement.
According to the statement, Fiorini’s father told detectives that his son had been upset about her new relationship and on the night of the shooting, the younger man allegedly said “something to the effect that he was going to ‘kill that son of a bitch.'”
The standard sentencing range for first-degree murder with a firearm enhancement is 31-38 years in prison.
