There the guy was, court records say, standing on the steps leading to the basement of the Cash of America pawn shop, faee covered, surrounded by the evidence of all he’d been up to, but should not have been, in the early morning hours of Dec. 16, 2021.
Booty, according to court records, in the form of multiple laptops in a blue bag, tools, including snippers and a knife, as well as something that would be tough for him to explain away — a freshly-cut hole on the south side of the building, big enough for Wiley Coyote to crawl through.
But as the clock ticked to 3:44 a.m., one thing suddenly seemed out of place to the guy — that is, the Auburn police officer who showed up just as he was stuffing another laptop into his bag.
On Dec. 20, 2021, the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office charged 50-year-old Donald Buchanan of Auburn with one count of second-degree burglary.
Below is the Auburn Police Department’s Certification for Determination of Probable Cause, which forms the basis of the KCPAO’s case against Buchanan.
At 3:40 a.m., the APD received a call from a manager of the Cash of America at 2341 Auburn Way S., reporting that live surveillance video had caught someone walking around in the basement.
When an APD officer arrived four minutes later and ordered the suspect to stop what he was doing and put his hands in the air, according to the CFDPC, instead of complying, the suspect ran down the stairs, hopped a chain-link fence that was 8 feet high and ran south to Riverwalk Drive Southeast.
Following a game trail that led into dense woods behind the Cash of America building, according to the documents, the officer caught up to the suspect six minutes later, sitting on the ground, gloves, jacket and hat close by, wearing the same clothes the officer had just seen on the guy at the Cash of America building.
Despite the sweat on his face and his labored breathing at the time of his apprehension, according to documents, the man later claimed that he’d just been snoozing in the woods. But with the temperature outside a chilly 35 degrees and no sleeping bag, the officer found that hard to believe.
According to documents, the officer was able to identity the man as Buchanan by his Muckleshoot Tribal identification, but Buchanan refused to answer questions.
On a later fact-finding visit to the Cash of America building, another officer discovered damage to a secured door, according to the documents, indicating that Buchanan had first tried to break its lock before resorting to cutting a hole in the wall to get inside.
The charging documents report the value of the laptops at $5,000.
Court records show that at the time of the incident, Buchanan had three active, $500 bench warrants out for his arrest in King County District Court for pending criminal trespass cases, all of them dating to 2021 and less than a month apart. He also carries a substantial lifetime warrant history, including, but not limited to, the 25 warrants he’s racked up since 2010.
Court records show that Buchanan has also decorated his record with a felony conviction for second degree unlawful possession of a firearm in 2010, and a misdemeanor conviction for violating a no-contact order for domestic violence in 1999.
In addition, Buchanan’s record carries misdemeanor convictions for fourth-degree domestic violence assault in 1999; for discharging a firearm in 1990 and 1989; for second-degree criminal assistance in 2011; for second-degree criminal trespassing in 1990 and 1989; and for closed season hunting and or fishing out of season in 1995.
Taking all of the above into account, Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Hannah Godwin asked the court at Buchanan’s earlier bail hearing to maintain the $5,000 bail that King County District Court had earlier imposed for the three pending cases.
“The state is concerned the defendant will not follow court orders,” Godwin said. “While most of the defendant’s history is older, [he] is escalating in his criminal conduct and has prior criminal convictions for violating court orders. “
