2nd suspect in Percival Creek homicide returned to Thurston County, pleads not guilty

A second man arrested in connection with a September homicide near Percival Creek on Olympia’s west side made his first court appearance in Thurston County on Friday.

Scott McKasson, 38, was arrested Oct. 21 in Oakland, California, and booked into the Thurston County jail this week. Appearing in court via videoconference, McKasson pleaded not guilty to charges of first-degree murder and attempted robbery.

Commissioner Nathan Kortokrax ordered McKasson be held without bail. Jeffery Lippert, the county’s chief criminal deputy prosecutor, argued McKasson is a flight risk and a violent person, to which McKasson laughed.

Last month, another suspect, Bart J. Wheaton, 26, was arrested and charged with rendering criminal assistance and first-degree robbery. At the time, police said McKasson had left the state and was considered armed and dangerous.

According to court documents, a 911 caller reported hearing gunshots near Cooper Point Road Southwest about 4:45 p.m. Sept. 22. Officers later found the victim, Daniel Kudro of Olympia, under a bridge over the Percival Creek ravine. He had been shot.

Surveillance footage from a nearby gasoline station shows two men, identified by a witness as McKasson and Wheaton, walking in the area. Another witness reported seeing the men walking out of the woods after gunshots were heard.

According to court documents, a witness later told police he was at a camp in the ravine that day when he saw McKasson and Wheaton approach the camp and heard them discuss how much money and drugs Kudro had. The witness heard a woman tell the men Kudro had a “fat bag of cash and dope.”

The witness told police he tried to warn Kudro about the robbery plot, but Kudro wouldn’t listen. The witness left the area and when he returned he found Kudro’s body.

After Wheaton was arrested, he reportedly told police he heard McKasson tell Kudro to “get the (expletive) on the ground,” and then heard gunshots, according to court documents.

Wheaton said he later drove McKasson and his girlfriend to the Amtrak station in Portland and gave him $100. Wheaton said McKasson planned to go to Los Angeles and then head east.

This story was originally published November 3, 2017 at 5:20 PM with the headline "2nd suspect in Percival Creek homicide returned to Thurston County, pleads not guilty."