A 29-year-old Washington man was arrested this week after allegedly beating a woman so viciously in her own home that she’s now in a coma.
Police officers said that Christopher Yacono of Arlington went to a Mountlake Terrace home on Monday to attempt a robbery.
Officers said that the defendant initially claimed he was outside the home when he heard the woman scream and kicked down her front door to go inside. He said he saw her lying on the floor with severe head injuries and went to her refrigerator to grab a beer before going back outside, a probable-cause statement said, reported The Seattle Times.
But officers later said that he changed his story and said that he was in his car after retrieving a phone he’d left at a friend’s home nearby when “something told him to go into the house.”
Yacano said that he went to the home’s door and knocked. When he didn’t hear anyone responding, he kicked down the door and found the woman inside.
Yacano admitted slamming her head into the wall after she screamed upon seeing him, according to the statement.
Yacano said he also hit her in the head with a cooking pot as well as a beer bottle.
Yacano said he couldn’t provide a motive for his attack but noted that he’s schizophrenic and had not been taking his medication recently.
“The victim did not know the suspect,” Mountlake Terrace police operations Cmdr. Mike Haynes told the Herald Net.
Officers told KOMO News that two men who live in the upstairs unit of the residence ran to a closet, hid, and called 911 when they heard Yacano kicking down the door.
The victim, a 32-year-old woman, went to investigate, which is when she was attacked.
A GoFundMe for the victim said she has two young children.
The family friend who created the fundraising account said that the woman’s three-year-old daughter witnessed the attack.
Court records show that Yacano was recently released from prison after serving a sentence for arson and cyberstalking after kicking down the door of his former roommate’s apartment and setting the man’s mattress on fire. He also sent the former roommate a text message threatening to kill him.
Yacano was on community supervision at the time of the attack; he also has nearly a dozen misdemeanor convictions on his record.
Yacano has been charged with first-degree assault and first-degree burglary.
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