Overview
- King County prosecutors filed a first-degree murder charge with a deadly weapon enhancement against 31-year-old Christopher Michael Leahy in the stabbing death of University of Washington student Juniper Blessing.
- Investigators say surveillance video showed Blessing and Leahy enter the Nordheim Court laundry room, and court papers allege he looked into the camera and then unplugged it before leaving alone.
- Prosecutors report Blessing suffered more than 40 stab wounds in the off-campus building’s laundry room.
- Leahy turned himself in after police released surveillance images and remains in jail on $10 million bail, with a plea expected at his next court hearing.
- Prosecutors are not seeking a hate-crime charge due to insufficient evidence of an anti-trans motive, and the case has spurred vigils in Seattle and Santa Fe and fresh scrutiny of off-campus housing security.