When a security guard patrolling Green River College’s student housing in the early morning hours of Feb. 24 hurried from his still-running car to help another guard deal with a stubborn trespasser, court records say, a woman jumped into his car and drove off.
In so doing, in the eyes of the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, 37-year-old Julia Elaina Gutierrez turned what should been a nothing incident into an actual crime.
On Feb. 28, prosecutors charged Gutierrez with one count of motor vehicle theft. Gutierrez, who is homeless, is in King County Jail on $10,000 bail.
Here is how the incident unfolded, according to the Auburn Police Department probable cause documents.
When the first security guard, who was on foot, asked the woman he’d seen walking about the college’s student housing after midnight on Feb. 24 if she was a student, and she said she wasn’t, the guard informed her she was on private property and had to leave the site at 31920 124th Avenue S.E.
Apparently, Gutierrez did not take kindly to that ask, or to his second ask, because she kept walking, telling the guard to stop following her, and cursing him as she went.
Then, according to the police report, she struck him on his right shoulder with a closed fist. He was not hurt. After Gutierrez hit the guard, according to the report, she took out a grey-handled butterfly knife, leaving the blade collapsed and unexposed, and said she was going to cut him.
When the second security guard arrived and hurried out of his car to help his fellow guard calm Gutierrez down, according to the report, she continued cursing.
Then, according to the report, she asked the second guard, “What if I steal your car?”
Which, according to police, she did.
The guard was able to track his car to Andover Park in Tukwila, where police detained her. But according to the report, she was rambling and unintelligible, so they were unable to identify her at first. King County Jail staff later identified her as Gutierrez.
Gutierrez’ s out-of-state conviction history includes the following from California: willful cruelty to a child; possession of a stolen vehicle and elder dependent adult cruelty.
