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Brenda Nicholas, 47, was sentenced this afternoon to 34 years in prison for the robbery and stabbing death of Francis Patrick Fleming, 70, in December 2011 in Seattle’s Bitter Lake neighborhood.

A jury convicted Nicholas in April of Murder First Degree with a deadly weapon enhancement as charged. The sentence range was 26 to 34 years in prison. The sentence range included several unrelated thefts committed by the defendant. Prosecutors recommended a 34-year sentence.

Co-defendant Charles Jungbluth was sentenced in May to 21 years in prison for his part in the murder. He pleaded guilty to Murder First Degree with a deadly weapon enhancement.

KingCounty.gov

Woman sentenced in vicious killing of Seattle veteran

A King County Superior Court judge called Brenda Nicholas a “danger to society,” sentencing the 42-year-old thief and killer to 34 years in prison for the December 2011 stabbing death of Navy veteran, Francis “Patrick” Fleming.

By Sara Jean Green - Seattle Times staff reporter

August 9, 2013

Brenda Nicholas was the “mastermind” who plotted to kill a 70-year-old Navy veteran and two-time Purple Heart recipient for months because she wanted to get her hands on his valuable coin and uncut bill collection, a crime she and two accomplices carried out with extreme brutality, King County Senior Deputy Prosecutor Carla Carlstrom said Friday.

“The motive behind this murder was solely greed,” Carlstrom told Superior Court Judge Theresa Doyle during Nicholas’ sentencing hearing for the December 2011 stabbing death of Francis “Patrick” Fleming inside his unit at the Four Freedoms senior apartments in Seattle’s Bitter Lake neighborhood.

In addition to orchestrating Fleming’s slaying, Nicholas attempted to kill and rob another elderly man on the same day Fleming was killed, Carlstrom said. She was also charged with more than 50 criminal counts for a variety of thefts, with most of the counts related to bilking a woman in her 80s out of $1 million. Nicholas also stole from at least three landlords she rented properties from, said Carlstrom.

Before she stood trial for Fleming’s murder, Nicholas pleaded guilty to first-degree identity theft and two counts of first-degree theft in a plea deal to resolve the other criminal counts against her. In March, a jury convicted her of first-degree murder. She was sentenced Friday for all of her crimes.

Several of Nicholas’ victims were in court on Friday. Two of them addressed the judge and spoke of the financial devastation and psychological havoc that was unleashed in their lives through their association with Nicholas.

Defense attorney Jonathan Newcomb blamed Nicholas’ Romani upbringing, saying she was “a product of her environment” who was “frankly, raised to steal, taught to steal.”

Nicholas, a mother of two teenage sons, can’t read and has been disowned by her extended family since the jury handed down its guilty verdict in March, Newcomb said.

He said Nicholas was the victim of domestic violence and had sent most of the money she stole to family members to pay her mother-in-law’s medical bills.

During trial, Nicholas tried to pin Fleming’s murder on her boyfriend, but “now she claims her upbringing, her Romani background, her hard life” is to blame for her slew of crimes, Carlstrom said.

Nicholas quietly cried through most of the hearing, and told the judge: “The boys are waiting for me, your honor” — a reference to her sons.

Doyle, however, seemed unimpressed by Nicholas’ tears. Noting that Nicholas is now 42, Doyle said it was appropriate that she wouldn’t be released until her 70s — “basically a life sentence,” she said.

“I think Ms. Nicholas is a danger to society,” the judge said, handing down the stiffest punishment she could — a little over 34 years in prison.

She said “the heartlessness, the coldbloodedness, and the inhumanity” of Fleming’s murder was both striking and disturbing.

The challenges Nicholas may have faced in her life did nothing to mitigate her crimes, said Doyle, adding that she “basically ruined” the life of Sylvia Sutton, the woman Nicholas befriended and manipulated into draining her life’s savings.

Court documents in the theft and murder cases reveal how easily Nicholas insinuated herself into her victims’ lives:

Nicholas was working as a psychic at a street fair in Seattle’s International District in summer 2007 when Sutton came into her booth to have her palm read. She convinced Sutton she had a “gray aura” about her and offered to help, but told Sutton it would cost her.

Over the next several years, Sutton made frequent cash withdrawals at Nicholas’ request.

Once Sutton became completely dependent on her, Nicholas began moving her to and from various residences, never allowing her to stay at any one place for more than a few months at a time. The Four Freedoms House, where Fleming was killed, was one of the residences.

Sutton met Fleming after moving into the apartment building in spring 2011, and introduced Nicholas to him. Fleming, who was proud of his rare and valuable collection, even showed Nicholas where he kept the items.

From the moment she met Fleming, Nicholas began plotting to rob and kill him, Carlstrom and Senior Deputy Prosecutor Page Ulrey wrote in their sentencing memo.

After an elderly man in Wallingford who had “lent” Nicholas thousands of dollars became suspicious and contacted police, Seattle officers questioned Sutton about her relationship with Nicholas.

Nicholas quickly moved Sutton out of Four Freedoms to distance herself from Fleming’s apartment building.

To carry out Fleming’s murder, Nicholas enlisted the help of Gilda Ramirez, a woman she’d met years earlier in New York who became ostracized from her family after borrowing so much money to give to Nicholas for her services as a psychic; and Charles Jungbluth, who was in love with Nicholas, according to the sentencing memo.

Ramirez and Jungbluth, who both negotiated plea deals for their involvement in Fleming’s death, testified against Nicholas during her trial.

Jungbluth pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and was sentenced to 22 years in prison.

Ramirez, who hid in the bathroom while Nicholas and Jungbluth stabbed Fleming to death with a set of kitchen knives, pleaded guilty to robbery, burglary and trafficking in stolen property and was sentenced to a little more than six years in prison.

After donning disguises purchased by Nicholas, Nicholas and Jungbluth pushed their way into Fleming’s apartment on Dec. 8, 2011, after he answered their knock; they threw him to the ground and began stabbing him — and Fleming was alive and screaming during much of the attack, according to the sentencing memo.

Jury: Woman killed Bitter Lake man in nursing home robbery

By Levi Pulkkinen - Seattlepi.com

Monday, April 8, 2013

A woman accused of killing an elderly man at a North Seattle assisted living facility has been convicted of murder.

Convicted Monday following a jury trial, Brenda Nicholas was accused of helping to kill Francis P. Fleming at the Four Freedoms House in Seattle’ Bitter Lake neighborhood. Nicholas, 46, was convicted of first-degree murder with a deadly weapon and faces up to 30 years in prison.

Just after 9 p.m. on Dec. 8, 2011, Seattle police were called to the 700 block of North 135th Street after Fleming was found dead.

Officers arrived to find Fleming had nearly been decapitated, then left on the floor of his apartment to die. Fleming was also stabbed several times in the body “consistent with (Fleming) having been tortured prior to death,” Detective Cloyd Steiger told the court.

Speaking with other residents, detectives learned Fleming was an avid coin collector and had amassed a collection of valuable gold and silver coins. Much of that collection was missing, as was Fleming’s briefcase.

Investigators learned a friend of Fleming’s had recently been scammed by a psychic she’d met at a street fair, Steiger continued. That woman pointed police to Nicholas.

Kirkland police officers investigating thefts attributed to the group searched a home where Jungbluth and Ramirez were living. Doing so, they found a leather briefcase with papers belonging to Fleming.

Nicholas was accused in the killing alongside Charles Wayne Jungbluth and Gilda Ivonne Ramirez. Jungbluth pleaded guilty to the murder, while Ramirez admitted to thefts surrounding the killing but not the slaying itself.

Writing the court previously, Senior Deputy Prosecutor Carla Carlstrom claimed the defendants are involved in a “loosely organized” group of criminals.

“They are known to earn their livelihood by committing financial crimes, often against vulnerable adults, to be transitory, and to have multiple identities,” Carlstrom told the court.

Jungbluth was arrested after being charged in thefts targeting the elderly. Ramirez was arrested days later.

Confronted with DNA evidence recovered at the slaying scene, Jungbluth admitted to the murder. Jungbluth said Nicholas told him of Fleming’s coin collection and suggested he steal it.

Jungbluth went on to say he, Ramirez and Nicholas went to Fleming’s apartment armed with large kitchen knives planning to kill him and take his coins, Steiger continued.

“When Fleming opened the door, they pushed their way in,” Steiger told the court, recounting Jungbluth’s statement to police.

“He and (Nicholas) both stuck their knives into Fleming’s throat, and were cutting him until he stopped moving,” the detective added.

The robbers loaded Fleming’s coins into two duffels and fled the apartment.

Ramirez made similar admissions, and said she was physically ill during the attack. She purportedly said another man burned their clothing after Fleming was killed.

Ramirez pleaded guilty to first-degree robbery, first-degree burglary and first-degree trafficking in stolen property, as well as several theft charges. She faces up to eight years in prison when sentenced, and remains jailed.

Nicholas and Jungbluth have each been convicted of first-degree murder. Jungbluth faces up to 28 ½ years in prison for killing Fleming when he is sentenced later this year. A sentencing date for Nicholas hasn’t been set.

Torture, rare coins, psychic readings key elements in brutal slaying

Kirotv.com

November 8, 2012

Prosecutors said a woman is behind a case that includes torture, psychic readings, rare coins and ultimately the slaying of a 70-year-old Seattle man.

Brenda Nicholas has a long criminal history including 50 counts of first-degree theft. Nicholas is accused of taking more than $1 million from an 85-year-old woman.

But now she is also charged with first-degree murder in the slaying of 70-year-old Francis Fleming.

Police said Charles Jungbluth, 51, and Gilda Ramirez, 49, tortured Fleming in his apartment, stabbed him, slit his throat and stole his valuable collection of coins. They are also charged in the case. But prosecutors said Nicholas was the brains behind the plan that led to the victim’s death.

“She was the mastermind behind murdering 70-year-old Francis Fleming in order to steal from him,” said Senior Deputy Prosecutor Carla Carlstrom in King County court on Thursday.

Fleming lived at the Four Freedoms House in North Seattle when he was killed last December.

Charging documents said Nicholas befriended a woman who used to live there, and through that woman, met Fleming and became aware of his rare coin collection. Prosecutors said it was that coin collection that led to Fleming’s slaying.

Police said Fleming was nearly decapitated and there were signs he'd been tortured.

After his death on Dec. 8, Fleming's friends said he loved to show off the coin collection, which was insured for $60,000.

Prosecutors said Nicholas preyed on senior citizens, at times claiming to be psychic. She would gain their trust and then convince them to let her handle their money, prosecutors said.

Judith Perkins came to court Thursday to see Nicholas in person. She told KIRO 7 Eyewitness News reporter Michelle Millman her healthy, 60-year-old brother-in-law rented a home to Nicholas last year, and within a few weeks he had a stroke and was dead.

“My brother-in-law trusted her. I don’t know if she had anything to do with his death but I spent a year looking into it,” said Perkins.

Nicholas has not been charged in connection with that death.

She pleaded not guilty to murder Thursday.

If convicted, she could be sentenced to about 40 years in prison.

2nd woman charged in Bitter Lake slaying

By Levi Pulkkinen - Seattlepi.com

Thursday, November 1, 2012

A woman long suspected in a Dec. 8 killing at a North Seattle assisted living facility has been charged with murder, the King County Prosecutor’s Office reported Thursday.

Brenda Nicholas was suspected of helping to kill Francis P. Fleming when two others were charged in the slaying, which occurred at the Four Freedoms House in Seattle’ Bitter Lake neighborhood. On Tuesday, prosecutors charged Nicholas, 46, with first-degree murder in Fleming’s stabbing.

Charles Wayne Jungbluth remains implicated in the slaying, while former-codefendant Gilda Ivonne Ramirez has since pleaded guilty to reduced charges. Jungbluth and Ramirez already faced a series of theft charges for a purported scheme in which Nicholas is also implicated.

Writing the court when charges were initially filed in August, Senior Deputy Prosecutor Carla Carlstrom claimed the defendants are involved in a “loosely organized” group of criminals.

“They are known to earn their livelihood by committing financial crimes, often against vulnerable adults, to be transitory, and to have multiple identities,” Carlstrom told the court.

Just after 9 p.m. the day of the killing, Seattle police were called to the 700 block of North 135th Street after Fleming was found dead.

Officers arrived to find Fleming had nearly been decapitated, then left on the floor of his apartment to die. Fleming was also stabbed several times in the body “consistent with (Fleming) having been tortured prior to death,” Detective Cloyd Steiger told the court.

Speaking with other residents, detectives learned Fleming was an avid coin collector and had amassed a collection of valuable gold and silver coins, Steiger told the court. Much of that collection was missing, as was Fleming’s briefcase.

Investigators learned a friend of Fleming’s had recently been scammed by a psychic she’d met at a street fair, Steiger continued. That woman pointed police to Nicholas.

Kirkland police officers investigating thefts attributed to the group searched a home where Jungbluth and Ramirez were living. Doing so, Steiger told the court, they found a leather briefcase with papers belonging to Fleming.

Jungbluth was arrested June 27 after being charged in thefts targeting the elderly. Ramirez was arrested days later.

Confronted with DNA evidence recovered at the slaying scene, Jungbluth admitted to the murder, Steiger said in court documents.

According to police, Jungbluth said Nicholas told him of Fleming’s coin collection and suggested he steal it.

Jungbluth went on to say he, Ramirez and Nicholas went to Fleming’s apartment armed with large kitchen knives planning to kill him and take his coins, Steiger continued.

“When Fleming opened the door, they pushed their way in,” Steiger told the court, recounting Jungbluth’s statement to police.

“He and (Nicholas) both stuck their knives into Fleming’s throat, and were cutting him until he stopped moving,” the detective added.

The robbers loaded Fleming’s coins into two duffels and fled the apartment, Steiger continued.

Ramirez made similar admissions, according to charging documents, and said she was physically ill during the attack. She purportedly said another man burned their clothing after Fleming was killed.

Nicholas and Jungbluth have each been charged with first-degree murder. Nicholas is expected to be arraigned on Nov. 8 and remains jailed on $2 million.

Ramirez pleaded guilty to first-degree robbery, first-degree burglary and first-degree trafficking in stolen property, as well as several theft charges. She faces up to eight years in prison when sentenced, and remains jailed.

Murder charge filed against woman in case of Navy veteran killed for coin collection

Patrick Fleming was killed at the Four Freedoms senior apartments on Dec. 8, 2011

David Rose - Coastlinepilot.com

November 1, 2012

UPDATE: A charge of murder has been filed against Brenda Nicholas in the stabbing death of 70-year-old Navy veteran Francis Patrick Fleming in a seniors-oriented apartment building in Seattle's Bitter Lake neighborhood last year.

The charge was filed Tuesday, but announced Thursday by the King County Prosecutor's Office.

Nicholas and co-defendants Charles Jungbluth, 51, and Gilda Ramirez, 49, remain in the King County Jail on $2 million bail. Jungbluth was charged with murder in the case Aug. 22 in the Dec. 8, 2011, slaying of Fleming.

Ramirez was originally charged with murder, but has since pleaded guilty to robbery, burglary and trafficking in stolen property that could get her 57 to 99 months in prison.

Nicholas previously had been charged with more than 55 counts of theft and one count of unlawful possesion of a firearm. Police said Jungbluth and Ramirez both stated that Nicholas committed the murder with them, and police said the investigation into Nicholas' involvement is ongoing.

In the charging documents, King County prosecutors said Jungbluth and Ramirez had no known criminal history prior to the murder charge, but that Ramirez and Nicholas "are believed to be part of a loosely organized crime group known as the Romas ... that are known to earn their livelihood by committing financial crimes" against vulnerable adults.

Fleming, a war hero, was attacked and killed at the Four Freedoms senior apartments. After he was found slain in his apartment, police learned that his extensive, and rare, coin collection was also missing.

DNA evidence led police to the first suspect, who was arrested Aug. 16, 2012, by Snohomish County sheriff's deputies.

ORIGINAL STORY: Seniors who live in this Seattle apartment are still waiting for news of an arrest after a highly decorated war hero was murdered here Dec. 8, 2011.

Detectives said retired sailor Patrick Fleming put up a good fight against his attacker, but unfortunately, investigators said he took his last breath sometime between 7 and 9pm that evening. He was killed for his valuable coin collection.

Police need the public’s help in finding the person or persons who murdered Fleming.

"This is our room. Patrick painted it himself," Patrick's wife, Melba said. "This is his urn."

Melba met Patrick, a tough-looking Navy veteran 25 years ago. And he was a man who kept his apartment ship-shape.

Patrick was a two-time Purple Heart recipient and received Gold and Bronze Stars for bravery as a riverboat gunner after more than 200 combat patrols in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam.

He survived shrapnel wounds from enemy rocket fire and is credited with knocking out an entire base with a 50-caliber machine gun. His death at the hands of a common criminal or criminals is a hard reality for his wife to accept.

"He fought for our country and he just died in a way that really sad,” she said. “I really miss him."

"He was laying on his bed, watching his TV in his pajamas when somebody came in and attacked him,” detective Cloyd Steiger of the Seattle Police Department. “It was obvious it was a blitz type of attack, a brutal attack and there is some evidence he was tortured a little bit."

Steiger said neighbors at the Four Freedoms House are understandably upset.

"That's a big facility with a lot of people in it and it's shocked it to its core, people are terrified in that building of this guy being murdered right amongst them," Steiger said.

Steiger said Patrick was targeted for his vast collection of mint-proof coin sets, presidential dollars and uncut sheets of U.S. currency which are worth about $60,0000. His two Purple Heart medals and Gold and Bronze Stars were also stolen; Purple Hearts are awarded to service members by the president.

“One of the things we found out is that he liked to talk to people about his coin collections. Everybody in the building knew he had them,” Steiger said. "This is his passion, collecting coins.”

Melba always worried Patrick's hobby might lead to trouble.

"I told him, ‘Why don't you put those coins in the safety deposit box at the bank?’ He said, ‘Well, if they come here, they are my enemies’,” she said.

More than once he told Melba his coins would only be taken over his dead body. “I will snap, they can kill me first before they can get my coins," he told her.

He was as good as his word -- crime scene evidence clearly indicates Patrick put up a fight, but the robber was armed and Patrick wasn't. Now, police are tracking his stolen property.

"Somebody may have bought coins or sheets of U.S. currency and didn't know they were stolen, and either they belonged to a coin shop or maybe they bought them off Craigslist or something like that,” Steiger said. “Maybe if they see this, it will tip their recollection and point us in the right direction."

Melba is still working up to taking Patrick’s ashes to Arlington National Cemetery to be laid to rest, but she's having a hard time saying goodbye with his killer still free.

“I hope people who see this video will help us find the criminals,” she said.

Crime Stoppers of Puget Sound is offering a cash reward for information that leads to the arrest of Patrick's killer.

If you trade or sell coins, take a look at our photo gallery that shows some of the coins and currency that were stolen from Patrick. Investigators hope somebody at a gold, coin or pawn shop remembers a seller coming in after December 8 with the coins and currency, or maybe someone bought them off Craigslist.

Not guilty pleas in throat-slashing murder of Navy veteran

KomoNews.com

August 30, 2012

SEATTLE - Two suspects have pleaded not guilty to the brutal torture killing of a 70-year-old Navy veteran at a Bitter Lake assisted living facility last year.

Charles Jungbluth and Gilda Ramirez both entered not guilty pleas Thursday in King County Superior Court to charges of first-degree murder in furtherance of robbery.

The victim, Francis Patrick Fleming, 70, a resident of the Four Freedoms House of Seattle, was found dead by a friend at the facility on Dec. 8, 2011.

The friend called police, who determined that Fleming had been tortured, his throat cut and his apartment ransacked. Investigators then found that Fleming's extensive collection of rare coins was missing, said Seattle police spokesman Jonah Spangenthal-Lee.

DNA evidence found inside Fleming's blood-spattered apartment during the initial investigation eventually led police to Jungbluth, 51. He was arrested by Snohomish County Sheriff's deputies earlier this month at the request of Seattle police homicide detectives.

Ramirez was arrested soon afterward.

Rosemary Garnett, a close friend of Fleming's who found his body and called police, said after Thursday's court hearing that it was a senseless murder.

She said Fleming, who went by his middle name of Patrick, was "a very fine person, a hero" who earned a number of medals for bravery during his military service in Vietnam.

"Patrick was a wonderful, generous man," Garnett said. "And he would have given this man money had he known he wanted it or needed it. He didn't have to kill him for it."

She said she had been visiting Fleming earlier in the evening, and when she returned to get something she had left there about two hours later, she found Fleming lying on the floor, with blood on the floor under him.

"I still have flashbacks to the scene of finding Patrick's body," she said. "My priest is helping me tremendously with that in grief therapy, so I will get through it."

Arrest in King County after elderly woman is bilked of $1 million

King County prosecutors have filed 54 criminal charges against Brenda Nicholas, most in connection to her alleged theft of more than $1 million from an elderly Seattle woman. Nicholas, 46, and two co-defendants have also been charged for allegedly duping three Seattle-area landlords, then failing to pay rent and stealing pricey items from the rental residences.

By Sara Jean Green - Seattle Times staff reporter

July 3, 2012

Brenda Nicholas, a 46-year-old woman who prosecutors say is involved in a loosely organized crime group, was charged Monday in King County Superior Court with more than 50 criminal counts, most connected to her alleged bilking of an elderly Seattle woman out of $1 million.

Nicholas, who was arrested Monday by U.S. marshals on a Seattle Police Department warrant, also was charged along with two co-defendants in an alleged scheme in which she is accused of failing to pay rent, then stealing pricey items belonging to three different landlords when she vacated the rental residences, according to a 26-page charging document outlining four separate police investigations into her alleged crimes.

Nicholas, who is under community supervision by the state Department of Corrections for a grand-theft conviction in California, has been charged with 52 counts of first-degree theft, one count of second-degree theft and one count of first-degree unlawful possession of a firearm, according to charging documents. Also wanted in New York on an outstanding warrant for second-degree burglary, Nicholas is being held in the King County Jail in lieu of $500,000 bail.

In addition to the theft charges, King County prosecutors have filed an "aggravator," accusing Nicholas of committing theft by deception against a particularly vulnerable victim. Should she be convicted as charged, Nicholas could face a standard sentence of 3 ½ to 4 ¾ years in prison.

However, the aggravator gives prosecutors a basis to seek an exceptional sentence — in this case, up to a 10-year prison sentence, the maximum allowed for a Class B felony — said Dan Donohoe, spokesman for King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg.

Also charged in the case involving the landlords are Gilda Ramirez, 49, and Charles Jungbluth, 50, according to charging documents.

Ramirez, who was booked into the King County Jail on Monday and is being held in lieu of $100,000 bail, has been charged with first-degree theft and trafficking in stolen property, according to jail and court records. Court documents show that Ramirez and Nicholas were living at the same Lynnwood address at the time of their arrests.

Jungbluth was charged with first-degree theft and second-degree theft; he was arrested and booked into jail last week and is being held in lieu of $10,000 bail, the records show.

All three defendants are to be arraigned July 16.

The case involving a now-85-year-old Seattle woman began in summer 2007, when the woman went to a street fair and paid Nicholas $30 to read her palm, according to charging documents. Nicholas told the woman she had a "gray aura" and was not doing well, then offered to help make the woman feel better, the papers say.

Over the next three years, the alleged victim, a widow who was estranged from her children, became isolated, confused and "completely dependent" on Nicholas, charging papers say. It is unclear who contacted Seattle police, but a criminal investigation was launched in late November 2011.

Up until December 2011, Nicholas had the woman make frequent withdrawals from her bank accounts and turn the cash over to Nicholas, according to charging documents. Between Sept. 14, 2007, and April 27, 2009, the woman withdrew a total of $1,088,500, money which she gave to Nicholas, usually in increments of $1,000 to $9,900, the papers say.

The elderly woman believed that Nicholas was using the money to take care of her and her affairs, as well as to pay a man named "Father Thomas," who Nicholas allegedly claimed was famous for his healing powers.

In the rental cases, Nicholas allegedly rented a house in March 2011 from a Seattle man who was planning a trip to France but who died the following month, charging papers say. The total loss to his estate is an estimated $13,000, a sum that includes nonpayment of rent, attorney fees to evict Nicholas, items stolen from the house and damaged property, the papers say.

Then in January 2012, the charging papers say, two other landlords — one in West Seattle and one in Kirkland — were also duped by Nicholas, who allegedly claimed she needed a place in the Seattle area to be close to her cancer-stricken mother.

The West Seattle landlord suffered a loss of $2,300, while the Kirkland landlord reported $51,000 worth of goods — including flat-screen TVs, furniture and art — had been taken from his rental residence, according to charging papers. Nicholas' two teenage sons had lived with her in the homes, the papers say.

Jungbluth was charged in connection with thefts from the two Seattle landlords, while Ramirez was charged with involvement in thefts from the landlords in West Seattle and Kirkland, charging papers say.