Upset at his girlfriend’s breakup with him during the morning of Aug. 1, Francisco Prado returned to her home that evening in a murderous rage directed at the man he believed had already replaced him in his ex’s affections and “disrespected” him, according to the Auburn police Department.
Then, using the butt of his victim’s own rifle, police say, Prado savagely bashed in Daniel Parkinson’s face, killing him. And then according to court records, Prado exulted in what he’d done.
On Aug. 4, the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office charged Prado, 31, an Auburn resident, with one count of first-degree murder while armed with a deadly weapon, a rifle stock, in the death of Parkinson, who lived in a basement room next to Prado’s former girlfriend.
According to the King County Medical Examiner, Parkinson died of “severe, blunt trauma to the head.”
On Aug. 4, Senior Deputy Prosecuting Attorney David M. Seaver asked the judge to set bail at $2 million, given “the brutality of the charged homicide,” which, he said, was difficult to capture in words.
“While his clothes were saturated with the victim’s blood, [Prado] fully acknowledged to police what he had done, expressed relief that the victim had died, and agreed that he should be punished,” Seaver told the court.
“It is inevitable that the defendant, like any other person, will feel disrespected by someone in the future. The defendant’s willingness to engage in extreme violence for this most mundane of reasons warrants great concern for the safety of the community and of the witnesses to the charged crime,” Seaver added.
According to the Auburn Police Department’s Certification of Determination of Probable Cause, which forms the basis of the state’s case against Prado.
A 911 call from one of Parkinson’s upstairs housemates summoned Auburn police to the 295 block of 118th Avenue Southeast in Auburn at 7:10 p.m., Aug. 1, with the news that a man had just told her he’d killed one of her housemates. While the call was in process, a man who also lived in the house had checked on the possibly-injured party and discovered Parkinson, covered in blood downstairs, unresponsive with no signs of life. Medics would later declare Parkinson dead.
In subsequent interviews with housemates, according to the police account, Prado’s girlfriend had ended their relationship that morning because of his alleged rampant drug use and thefts.
When Auburn police detectives interviewed the former girlfriend, they learned that Prado had been “very upset” by the breakup, and that it appeared he believed that she and Parkinson had begun dating. Witnesses told police his ex had not been at home at the time of the assault.
According to the police account, Prado mentioned that he had used drugs, among them methamphetamine, off and on for a long time, including the previous evening. He allegedly admitted to using fentanyl as well, then later mentioned taking Percocet and other opiates.
According to the police account, Prado told police he had taken “blue pills” earlier in the day, which is a common term for Percocet. Police then asked him about his state when he was using the blue pills, such as violent tendencies or hallucinations. Prado allegedly said the pills would usually last for a couple of hours, and “even out” his attitude. He denied being under the care of a mental health or medical physician and said he does not suffer from any mental illnesses.
