Trial begins for man who killed brother during Whatcom County pit stop
The trial of a Seattle man accused of shooting and killing his brother during a trip back from Republic in 2022 began in Whatcom County Superior Court on Thursday.
John Roper Thomson, 42, reportedly killed his brother, 69-year-old Robert Thomson, near the western end of Diablo Lake in the North Cascades National Park on Aug. 8, 2022. He was charged with first-degree murder and two counts of unlawful possession of a firearm.
The case is being prosecuted by Eric Richey, Prosecuting Attorney for Whatcom County, and Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Sophia Padgett.
According to court records, the brothers had gone to the cabin so that John Thomson could detox from heroin and alcohol, and John Thomson said his brother was abusing and belittling him throughout the drive back.
They stopped at a pull-out at mile marker 128 on North Cascades Highway at around 4 a.m. so that Robert Thomson could urinate, documents state. When John Thomson got out of the car, Robert Thomson pepper sprayed him. In response, John Thomson got an AR-15 out of the back of the car and shot his brother in the back of the head.
Padgett described in her opening argument how John Thomson shot at his brother over 20 times, hitting him three times in the head, eight times in the torso and once in the arm.
Matthew Mearns, the public defender representing the defendant along with Starck Follis, said in his opening argument that John Thomson heard a clicking sound when he got out of the car. He believed Robert Thomson had taken a revolver out of the trunk and was going to shoot him, Mearns said, and “acting on instinct, took his brother’s life to save his own.”
Following opening arguments, jurors heard testimony from the law enforcement officers and park rangers who initially responded to the incident.
Retired U.S. Park Ranger Gabrial Asarian was the first to respond to a call at around 4 a.m. reporting gunshots heard from the North Cascades Environmental Learning Center. As he drove around the area, Asarian said he found John Thomson slumped over inside of an Acura at the pull-out near Diablo Lake.
Once he was able to wake John Thomson up, he asked him if he’d heard gunshots. John Thomson replied, “I sure did.”
Asarian said he saw a dark spot near the guardrail. He said that in the dark, he thought it may have been vomit; but when he returned to the pull-out later after John Thomson had driven away, he realized it was blood. Shell casings and pepper spray were found on the scene, and Robert Thomson’s body was found about 20 feet down past the guard rail.
He and other park rangers attempted to follow and locate the Acura, and they eventually made contact with John Thomson in a parking lot in Newhalem at about 6 a.m.
Multiple rangers who testified Thursday described John Thomson as appearing “disheveled” and intoxicated. He had a black eye and some scratches, and blood on one of his shoes and lower leg.
Jurors were shown body camera footage of John Thomson’s interactions with law enforcement. He was recorded telling police that he hadn’t seen his brother since the night before at the Republic cabin, and told police he “got into it with (his) brother.”
He denied having any guns when asked, but police later found two firearms in the car.
The final witness called Thursday was the correctional officer who conducted John Thomson’s strip search at Whatcom County Jail. He said John Thomson told him unprompted that he murdered his brother, and that “he had it coming.”
The trial will resume Monday.