Lights & Sirens reader Jacob R. inquired this week:

I am curious,



Could you post an update on the blog for Tacoma’s 2007 Murder count?



If possible could you find out Seattle’s 2007 count? It seems like they have had a lot this year.

Jacob, I can answer part of your question.

Tacoma police spokesman Mark Fulghum said Friday there have been eight homicides in the city so far this year. All but one are solved, Fulghum said.

The number of killings is tracking below last year’s

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News from my town! Again, not good.

A federal judge sentenced a Kent woman Friday to five months behind bars followed by five months of home detention for her role in a marijuana distribution ring.

Trinh Tuyet Vu, 37, was convicted of conspiracy to commit money laundering, the U.S. Attorney’s Office reported. Vu, 37, was picked up with 28 other people in a multi-agency operation spanning Pierce and King counties called “This Bud’s Pho You.” Agents dubbed the sting that because some of the drug trafficking was run out of a Vietnamese restaurant serving that tasty noodle

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No court today for Harold Wright Jr., the Tacoma middle school principal charged with rape.

In fact, no court until July 9 for Wright, as Judge Lisa Worswick’s court is at recess next week.

To tide you over, I’ve assembled here links to the 10 blog posts and four stories I’ve written on the case so far.

Here you go:

Post one.

Post two.

Post three.

Post four.

Post five.

Post six.

Post seven.

Post eight.

Post nine.

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Harold Wright Jr. finished testifying on his own behalf Thursday in his second-degree rape trial.

His co-defendant, Richy Carter, took the stand just before lunch and still was under cross-examination when court recessed Thursday afternoon.

The trial is on hiatus next week and will resume July 9. I think Judge Lisa Worswick isn’t available next week.

Carter is expected to be the last defense witness.

Prosecutors say they may call two rebuttal witnesses – one of them likely to contradict Wright’s testimony Wednesday that he didn’t smoke pot the morning of the alleged rape – before

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15-year-old Tramayne D. Bryson returned home at 7 o’clock tonight after he heard the Federal Way police were out looking for him.

Bryson’s mom reported him missing Tuesday. He hadn’t been seen since Sunday.

Federal Way police say Bryson, who has a heart pacemaker and takes daily medication, appears healthy and unharmed.

Looks like we missed this crash Tuesday.

Bonney Lake police chief Mike Mitchell gave me this account:

About 2:30 p.m. Tuesday a vehicle crossed over the center line, striking a motorcyclist on Highway 410 at 229th Avenue East. The vehicle’s driver was either distracted or fell asleep.

Two other vehicles hit the wreck.

Three or four people were treated for injuries. The motorcyclist suffered the greatest injury of all of them. Mitchell didn’t know his condition today.

Police shut down 410 for an hour following the crash to investigate.

Wednesday ended with Harold Wright Jr. on the stand being cross-examined by deputy prosecutor Lori Kooiman.

During questioning from his own attorney, Wayne Fricke, Wright denied sexually assaulting the alleged victim in the case or having any sexual contact with her at all. In fact, he said, he would have intervened had he thought the woman was being forced to something against her will.

Kooiman launched a bit of a bombshell when she got her chance to question the Baker Middle School principal. Barely into her cross, she pointedly asked Wright if he had been smoking marijuana on

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Prosecutors got their crack at Daryl Wright after lunch.

Deputy prosecutor Lori Kooiman pointed out at least three cases where his testimony on the stand contradicted statements he’d given investigators from the Bethel School District back in 2004 when it investigated the alleged rape. Wright worked for the district at the time as an administrative intern.

One concerned what he was drinking that night. Daryl Wright told school investigators he’d been drinking beer late on Jan. 30 and in the early-morning hours of Jan. 31. He said on the stand Tuesday he’d drunk rum-and-Coke.

Another concerned whether he’d gotten out of the car when the group stopped for beer at a gas station on their way from the Puyallup bar where they met to the townhouse where the alleged rape occurred.

Daryl Wright told school investigators he’d remained in his car during that stop. On the stand Tuesday, he said he’d gotten out and gone in to the station, possibly to buy condoms.

The third contradiction pointed out by Kooiman concerned whether Daryl Wright saw his brother, Harold Wright Jr., on the ground floor of the townhouse in the minutes after Daryl said he and Stefanie Fincham had sex.

He told the school district he hadn’t seen his brother then. He said otherwise on the stand Tuesday.

When pressed by Kooiman on the discrepancies, Daryl Wright testified Tuesday that he remembers more about the event now than he did when he gave his statement to school district investigators three years ago.

Defense attorney Rob Freeby then called Jerry McClurkin to the stand.

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