Ferndale man on trial Monday for allegedly beating father to death, leaving body for a week
After nearly three years of delays, a Ferndale man will stand trial next week for allegedly beating his father to death with a hammer, leaving his body in a garage for more than a week and digging a grave to cover up the alleged murder.
Come Monday, March 9, Christopher Gregory Koop, 42, will be on trial in Whatcom County Superior Court for first-degree murder (domestic violence). Koop’s murder charge also includes the ability for the jury to include a sentencing enhancement for committing the alleged crime with a deadly weapon, and an aggravating circumstance that states that Koop acted with deliberate cruelty to the victim, according to court records.
Koop has been incarcerated in the Whatcom County Jail in lieu of $1 million bail since his arrest on April 26, 2017.
On April 25, 2017, around 11:30 p.m., Ferndale police were called to a house in the 6100 block of Grouse Circle for the report of a murder. Officers were told that 65-year-old William Koop Jr. was dead in his house and his son, Christopher Koop, was responsible, according to court records.
When officers arrived, they spoke with Christopher Koop, who said he had killed his father and the body was in the garage partially wrapped in a sheet, records show. Koop later provided an audio-recorded statement to officers at the police department, in which he allegedly confessed, according to court records.
Koop said he and his father were arguing over bills before Koop punched his father in the face, knocking him out. Koop then went to the garage, grabbed a ball-peen hammer and hit his father several times in the head, court records state. Koop also used two flashlights and a phone base to beat his father, records show.
Koop tried to “end his father’s suffering” by smothering him with a pillow, but when the elder Koop fought back, Koop stopped and left his father to bleed to death, court records state.
Koop then moved his father’s body from an upstairs bedroom to the garage, the records state.
In the next week and a half, Koop allegedly tried to clean the crime scene, load his father’s body into a vehicle, and dug a partial grave in the backyard to dispose of the body, according to court records. Koop told officers he was “too tired” to finish and left his father on the cement garage floor until the officers found him, according to court records.
During a search of the home, officers found a ball-peen hammer, a bag with broken flashlight parts, several cleaning supplies and what appeared to be blood in an upstairs bedroom with “an obvious trail” leading downstairs to the garage, court records show. They also found a partially dug grave outside, records state.
Whatcom County Medical Examiner Dr. Gary Goldfogel determined William Koop bled to death due to cranial fractures caused by blunt force blows from a weapon. He ruled his death a homicide.
Koop’s trial has been rescheduled at least 18 times in the almost three years since his arrest, including a three month period in late 2019 where Koop’s case was on hold pending a competency evaluation, court records show. Koop was later declared competent to stand trial on Dec. 5, 2019, court records state. He is presenting a general denial defense at trial.
The prosecution’s witnesses include Koop’s brother, a former roommate and another witness who are expected to testify about previous violence and repeated threatening statements they witnessed between Koop and his father, the records state.
In November 2000, when Koop’s father tried to evict him from their Grouse Circle home, he told his father several times he would kill him, court records show.
“(William) Koop stated that he is afraid of what Christopher Koop might do and feels that his son is capable of killing him or hurting him very badly,” the court records state.
Koop pleaded guilty to felony harassment in the case and was sentenced to six months in jail, mental health treatment and no contact with his father, the records show.
Koop has a criminal history going back more than two decades, which also includes convictions as a juvenile for a string of burglaries and a nearly three-year prison sentence after pleading guilty in 2006 to second-degree assault for a fight involving a roommate, according to court records.
