A 26-year-old Auburn man pleaded not guilty Tuesday morning to one count of first-degree murder for the February shooting death of his former girlfriend’s current boyfriend.
Prosecutors claim that on Feb. 24, Michael Ray Fiorini broke into his ex-girlfriend’s apartment and shot 27-year-old Christopher D. Johnson. According to the King County Medical Examiner’s Office, Johnson, died from a single gunshot wound to the chest.
A case setting hearing is scheduled for 1 p.m., March 29 in courtroom GA at the Norm Maleng Regional Justice Center in Kent. Fiorini is being held in jail at the Norm Maleng Regional Justice Center on $2.5 million bail.
According to the certification for determination of probable cause statement filed with charging papers, the woman and Fiorini had lived together for some time after high school but broke up in 2004 because of a domestic violence incident. The two, however, remained in periodic contact.
At about 3:15 a.m., according to the statement, Fiorini allegedly broke the sliding glass door to the woman’s apartment at the Habitat Condominiums at 33005 18th Place S. He entered, found his ex-girlfriend, 27, lying on the couch, pointed a gun at her and told her to “shut up.”
According to the statement, Johnson, who had been sleeping in the bedroom, heard his girlfriend scream, came out and approached the woman and Fiorini, the statement says. According to the statement, Fiorini then shot Johnson in the chest.
Police later found Johnson on the floor of the bedroom. Medical personnel could not revive him and pronounced him dead at the scene.
A K-9 unit tracked Fiorini from the apartment to some bushes where he had been hiding, about one-tenth of a mile east of the crime scene. Fiorini was armed with a 9-mm pistol, and police found a spent cartridge case in the chamber of the gun, according to the statement.
According to the statement, Fiorini’s father told detectives that his son had been upset about her new relationship and on the night of the shooting, the younger man allegedly said “something to the effect that he was going to ‘kill that son of a bitch.'”
The standard sentencing range for first-degree murder with a firearm enhancement is 31-38 years in prison.
