The trial date for a couple accused of stabbing a Door Dash driver and stealing his car in October last year will be rescheduled in late February.
Attorneys asked on Jan. 16 in Clallam County Superior Court to reset the trial for Nicholas Well, 30, and Rosario Lopez-Castro, 29, both accused of attempted murder in the second degree, robbery in the first degree, and theft of a motor vehicle.
Well’s appointed attorney William Payne said he didn’t anticipate a report on the case back from his expert until March, and that he couldn’t set a trial date yet as he has another pending trial then too.
Alex Stalker, Lopez-Castro’s attorney, said he’s in a similar position and he’d need to hire an expert of his own that Payne’s not using.
Judge Simon Barnhart agreed to schedule a reset hearing for the trial at 1 p.m. Friday, Feb. 27.
The couple’s previous start date for their six-day trial was set to begin Jan. 12, but was continued on Dec. 12.
Law enforcement reported that on the night of Oct. 19, good Samaritan Melvin Swagerty picked up the couple and their seven children on U.S. Highway 101 at Deer Park Road after he saw them walking along the highway, according to court documents.
Once on the 260 block of Carlsborg Road, Swagerty was stabbed in the neck and thrown from his car, and the couple took the vehicle with their children, ranging from 6 months to 9 years of age, still inside.
Swagerty was airlifted to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle where he underwent surgery and was discharged two nights later, according to previous reports.
His vehicle was found in the early morning of Oct. 20 parked in the road in Kitsap County where Well was found with a bloody knife and Lopez-Castro was in the passenger seat, report the Clallam County Sheriff’s Office.
Their children were placed in the custody of Child Protective Services in Kitsap County.
Well and Lopez-Castro are being held on $750,000 bond each in Clallam County jail with Lopez-Castro pleading not guilty on Nov. 14, and Well on Nov. 20 in Superior Court.
Eval ordered
A 47-year-old Sequim woman accused of two counts of attempted premeditated first-degree murder of her two sons will receive another competency evaluation after having receiving one earlier this month.
Ekaterina A. Parrish was evaluated on Jan. 9 for her competency to be able to assist in her trial and was diagnosed with major depressive disorder, according to court documents.
Despite the diagnosis, Dr. Cristnei Aquino-Vado, a forensic investigator and licensed psychologist, wrote that Parrish “possesses sufficient capacities to understand the nature of the proceedings against her and to assist counsel in her defense.”
Judge Simon Barnhart agreed to the inpatient forensic evaluation on Jan. 16 in Clallam County Superior Court with Parrish present and keeping her head down through the proceeding.
An update on her competency is set for a 9 a.m. Friday, Jan. 30 hearing.
Parrish’s defense attorney John Hayden called the situation “Déjà vu” with another evaluation order coming so soon after the other but he said some issues came up this week upon her return from Western State Hospital constituting another evaluation.
Chief Criminal Deputy Prosecutor Michele Devlin agreed with the evaluation saying that the “state is unsure if Ms. Parrish is unable to assist in her own defense.”
Parrish has been ordered in court to be evaluated for competency twice before on Oct. 11, 2023 and Oct. 15, 2025 by two doctors. She was previously diagnosed last year as “not competent, but restorable.” according to court documents.
Her arrest dates back to Dec. 13, 2022 after she allegedly drove her sons down an embankment on the 200 block of Hillside Drive where the vehicle rolled and airbags deployed.
The boys sustained minor injuries, court documents state, and one boy, who was 9 at the time, called 911 and told a dispatcher that his mother intentionally drove the car off the roadway to kill herself and them.
At the scene, law enforcement found Parrish bleeding profusely from self-inflicted lacerations on her inner wrists, according to court documents.
