Man accused of fatal stabbing pleads not guilty to second degree murder

Published 2:29 pm Friday, July 20, 2012

Marcus Frounfelter was arraigned Thursday and pleaded not guilty to a charge of second degree murder for the stabbing death of 23-year-old Roger Roberts of Auburn on July 2.

Frounfelter, 24, of Seattle is scheduled for a case setting hearing on July 31 at the King County Courthouse. Frounfelter allegedly stabbed Roberts, as the Auburn man tried break up a fight that Frounfelter was not involved in.

According to the Auburn police affidavit of probable cause, which forms the basis of the single charge, Roberts had intervened to break up a fight between a man and woman and was preparing to return to a friend’s house across the street when Frounfelter stabbed the unarmed Roberts in the chest. The King County Medical Examiner reported Roberts died of a single stab wound to the heart.

Frounfelter later told police that he had come outside because he had seen his youngest child in the street among the fighting adults. According to witnesses cited in the affidavit, however, none of Frounfelter’s children were outside at that time.

According to the affidavit, the series of events that led to Roberts death started with a verbal argument between Frounfelter’s aunt and her live-in boyfriend in their home at 909 6th St. SE. When the fight became violent it spilled into the front yard and onto the street in front of their house.

A group of friends in a house across the street, including Roberts, were enjoying a get together when they heard the noise and ran out to break up the fight. According to court records, a man who lives in that house held the male side of the fighting couple down to make sure he wouldn’t hit anybody, while another man restrained the woman and one of her female acquaintances.

According to the affidavit, witnesses told police that the fighters had calmed down and the neighbors were walking home when Frounfelter emerged from the house. Just as the neighbor across the street reached his front yard, he turned back to urge his friends, including Roberts, to return with him. Instead, he saw Roberts stumbling into the street.

According to the affidavit, a female witness told police that after the fight was broken up she turned and saw Roberts lying in the street. When she realized he’d been stabbed, she turned to Frounfelter, whom she knew carried a knife.

According to the affidavit, the woman approached Frounfelter “who had wide eyes, and asked him, ‘what did you do?’ [She] stated that Frounfelter did not respond but looked down at his hands.”

Within minutes of receiving the 911 call, police caught up with Frounfelter in a car with several occupants inside several blocks away, a bloody folding knife still in his pocket, according to the affidavit. Asked if he had stabbed anybody, according to the affidavit, Frounfelter allegedly admitted to police that he had “but didn’t know who he stabbed.”

According to the affidavit, Frounfelter allegedly admitted to detectives that he had downed about five to six beers and a couple of hits of marijuana before the fight. He told detectives that he suffers from brain trauma, has undergone some 19 surgeries to correct the problem and has suffered a series of strokes.