Friday, June 23, 2006

A Lot of Blood

“Oh, my God, I can’t believe this is happening,” Marissa Manwarren, 17, said to one of her roommates, when she heard of her boyfriend Cevelino Capuia’s arrest in Beaverton on June 11, 2006. Manwarren and Capuia were hiding out at a house in Hillsboro. Capuia had gone into Beaverton to rob a Plaid Pantry.

“That car is stolen, and they killed someone to get it,” said Manwarren. Capuia was driving the car of Chai Taphom who was shot to death on May 13 in northeast Portland.

Later that day Shawn Womack, 21, and his girlfriend, Jasmine Lesniak, showed up in Hillsboro looking for Manwarren. She told her roommates that she was going to Corvallis with Womack and Lesniak. Womack drove to North Portland and gave Manwarren $200 to buy drugs for him from a drug house.

Womack is a cold-blooded killer who has confessed to gunning down Chai Taphom and Michael Burchett for their cars. When Manwarren returned with no drugs and no money, Womack forced her into Burchett’s car and started driving south.

Somewhere south of Portland, Womack forced Manwarren out of the car, shot her twice in the head and put her in the trunk. He then drove to Beverly Beach, near Newport and dumped her body on an isolated road. Womack told police he “had a lot of blood” on him after the killing. He returned to Corvallis and threw his bloody clothes into a dumpster on 25th and Harrison.

Womack and Lesniak were arrested in Corvallis on June 13 driving Michael Burchett’s car. Police found a 9mm handgun in the car that they believe is the weapon used in all three shootings. They found blood on the back bumper and “a large amount” of blood in the trunk.

Capuia admitted his part in the crimes. He had been present at the shootings of Taphom and Burchett and had driven the cars away after the crime. He received Taphom’s silver 2005 Honda as his payment.

On June 20 Police searched the Corvallis apartment where Womack and Lesniak had lived. They found car seats used by Taphom’s twin daughters, mail to the two dead men, extra keys for both cars, identification and credit cards in the dead men’s names and a baseball cap.

Portland Homicide Detective Brian Grose recognized the baseball cap. He had seen it in surveillance videos from the Blue Spot Video Store. Michael Burchett was wearing it when he entered the building shortly before he was killed.

1 Comments:

Blogger xTaphomx said...

Wow you must love crime!

10:06 PM  

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