PORT ANGELES — Gary Carl Borneman Jr. was in custody in the Clallam County jail Saturday, charged with first-degree murder in the shooting death of Gerald David “Jerry” Howell.
Borneman, 39, of Port Angeles was transferred Saturday from Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, where he had undergone surgery for hand injuries suffered Tuesday night.
Charges were filed Thursday. No bond had been set as of Saturday.
An initial court date will be set soon, according to Prosecuting Attorney Will Payne.
An arrest report written by Port Angeles Police Sgt. Jesse Winfield and filed in court records said that Borneman was found outside the house at 130 W. 11th St. at 7:11 p.m. Tuesday holding a gun with bloody hands.
The report said officers followed a trail of blood through a kicked-in back door to the laundry room, where they found Howell face-down, dead of a gunshot wound to the head, with a shotgun between his legs.
Hiding in the bushes outside was Rebecca Messinger, who had alerted police with a 9-1-1 call on her cellphone.
Messinger, 31, told police Borneman — with whom she had had a child, now 2 — had kidnapped her at gunpoint at a residence at 714 Georgiana St. and made her drive him to the house at 130 W. 11th, where she lived with Howell, 40.
She had kept the address secret from Borneman in fear of her safety and that of Howell, according to police.
Borneman fired the handgun inside Messinger’s vehicle while telling her to drive, she told officers.
Once they arrived at 130 W. 11th, he tied her to the seat of the car and told her he “had been planning this for a long time,” she said.
Messinger had a protection order against Borneman. It was not specified in the report how she escaped her bonds and got out of the car. Other details of what happened are also not specified in Winfield’s report.
Winfield wrote that when he arrived, he saw Borneman near a vehicle in front of the house.
“Borneman appeared to look at me and then fled to the east of the residence, where Officer Dan Morse contacted him,” Winfield said.
Borneman told Morse, “Well, you got me,” Winfield reported.
Borneman carried a .22-caliber handgun which appeared to have been “disabled in a gunfight. The gun was covered in blood. He also had a loaded spare magazine for the gun in his pants pocket,” Winfield said.
Multiple injuries to his hands “appeared to be consistent with a close-quarters gunfight, and he had what appeared to be shrapnel injuries to his face,” Winfield added.
While Morse took Borneman into custody, Winfield said he followed a trail of blood leading from the house to Messinger’s vehicle, back to the house and around the east side of the house.
Along with a shotgun, Winfield also found a spent shotgun shell on the floor and a spent .22-caliber shell in a hallway at the residence.
Search warrants were served at both the Georgiana and West 11th Street residences.
In a trailer on Georgiana Street, police said they found an empty gun case and Borneman’s identification.
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5070, or at arwyn.rice@peninsuladailynews.com. Managing Editor Leah Leach contributed to this report.
