PORT ANGELES — A trial date for a couple accused of stabbing a driver and stealing his car last October will be rescheduled next month.
Attorneys asked on Jan. 16 in Clallam County Superior Court to reset the trial for Nicholas Well, 30, and Rosario Lopez-Castro, 29, both accused of attempted second-degree murder, first-degree robbery and theft of a motor vehicle.
Well’s appointed attorney, William Payne, said he didn’t anticipate a report on the case back from his expert until March, and that he couldn’t set a trial date yet as he has another pending trial.
Alex Stalker, Lopez-Castro’s attorney, said he’s in a similar position and he would need to hire an expert of his own that Payne is not using.
Judge Simon Barnhart agreed to schedule a reset hearing at 1 p.m. Feb. 27.
The couple’s previous start date for their six-day trial was set to begin Jan. 12, but it was continued on Dec. 12.
The driver, Melvin Swagerty, picked up the couple and their seven children on Oct. 19 on U.S. Highway 101 at Deer Park Road after he saw them walking along the highway, according to court documents.
Once they reached the 260 block of Carlsborg Road, Swagerty was stabbed in the neck and thrown from his car, and the couple took the vehicle along with their children, who ranged from 6 months to 9 years old.
Swagerty was airlifted to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, where he underwent surgery and was discharged two nights later, according to previous reports. His vehicle was found in the early morning of Oct. 20 parked in the road in Kitsap County, where Well was found with a bloody knife and Lopez-Castro was in the passenger seat, the Clallam County Sheriff’s Office said.
Their children were placed in the custody of Child Protective Services in Kitsap County.
Well and Lopez-Castro are being held on $750,000 bond each in Clallam County Jail. Lopez-Castro pleaded not guilty on Nov. 14 and Well pleaded not guilty on Nov. 20.
Evaluation ordered
Meanwhile, a 47-year-old Sequim woman accused of two counts of attempted first-degree murder of her two sons will receive another competency evaluation after she received one earlier this month.
Ekaterina A. Parrish was evaluated on Jan. 9 for her competency to be able to assist in her trial and was diagnosed with major depressive disorder, according to court documents.
Despite the diagnosis, Dr. Cristnei Aquino-Vado, a forensic investigator and licensed psychologist, wrote that Parrish “possesses sufficient capacities to understand the nature of the proceedings against her and to assist counsel in her defense.”
Judge Simon Barnhart agreed to the inpatient forensic evaluation on Jan. 16 with Parrish present. An update on her competency is set for a hearing at 9 a.m. Friday.
Parrish’s defense attorney John Hayden called the situation “déjà vu” with another evaluation order coming so soon after the other, but he said some issues came up this week upon her return from Western State Hospital constituting another evaluation.
Clallam County Chief Criminal Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Michele Devlin agreed with the evaluation, saying the “state is unsure if Ms. Parrish is unable to assist in her own defense.”
Parrish has been ordered in court to be evaluated for competency twice before, on Oct. 11, 2023, and Oct. 15, 2025, by two doctors. She was previously diagnosed last year as “not competent, but restorable,” according to court documents.
Her arrest dates back to Dec. 13, 2022, after she allegedly drove a vehicle with her two sons down an embankment in the 200 block of Hillside Drive, where the vehicle rolled and airbags deployed.
The boys sustained minor injuries, court documents state, and one boy, who was 9 at the time, called 911 and told a dispatcher that his mother intentionally drove the car off the roadway to kill herself and the boys.
At the scene, law enforcement found Parrish bleeding profusely from self-inflicted lacerations on her inner wrists, according to court documents.
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Matthew Nash is a reporter with the Olympic Peninsula News Group, which is composed of Sound Publishing newspapers Peninsula Daily News, Sequim Gazette and Forks Forum. He can be reached by email at matthew.nash@sequimgazette.com.
