Man pleads not guilty to murder charge in stabbing death
Published 2:31 pm Monday, March 7, 2016
Fritz K. Ratcliffe, whom prosecutors claim killed a young man who had tried to step between Ratcliffe and the man’s mother as the two argued in her Auburn apartment Feb. 18, was arraigned for second-degree murder in a courtroom at the Maleng Regional Justice Center in Kent on Monday.
Relatives and friends of 21-year-old Jaseree Fountain let their anguish and fury spill out as Ratcliffe’s attorney entered the not guilty plea.
“Kill him, kill him,” a woman sobbed. “You didn’t have to do it!”
“Burn in hell,” another woman said quietly. “Burn in hell.”
Case setting is March 21.
Here is how events unfolded that evening, according to what witnesses told police and as contained in the Certification for Determination of Probable Cause.
According to the account, the woman arrived at her apartment at about 7 p.m. after an outing with an unidentified friend. In the apartment were her son, Jaseree, Ratcliffe, and her niece, who was visiting from Minnesota.
Ratcliffe, according to the police account, was upset and began to argue with the woman. The woman left the apartment with her niece to buy alcohol, and when she returned, Ratcliffe was still upset, and very drunk.
The two continued to argue until Ratcliffe, according to the police account, turned his aggression on Jaseree, who, according to the police account, had come to his mother’s defense and stepped between them.
According to the police account, Ratcliffe then stabbed the young man with a six-to-seven-inch long folding knife. The woman ran out of the apartment with her niece and began knocking on the neighbors’ doors, screaming for help.
According to the police account, when they arrived about 10:30, Ratcliffe had already fled in his Dodge. Police found Jaseree with his legs up on a couch and his body on the floor of a small bedroom. There was blood on the floor and on a wall. Police and medics tried to revive Jaseree, but it was too late.
Anacortes Police later detained Ratcliffe. and Auburn detectives returned him to the SCORE jail. Police served and processed warrants on the apartment and on Ratcliffe’s car.
