A deserter from Joint Base Lewis-McChord was being sought in connection with a recent homicide when he was arrested Friday in King County, a law enforcement official told The News Tribune.
Army law enforcement personnel and Tukwila police arrested Army Spc. Jonathan Kang Lee on Jan. 26 near Redmond. Lee had not been seen at JBLM since Jan. 14 as his trial on child-sex charges there approached. He was convicted of those charges in absentia on Jan. 19 and sentenced to 64 years in prison, the Army said.
Contacted by The News Tribune on Saturday, a spokesperson for the Redmond Police Department said that at the time of his Friday arrest Lee was being sought in connection with a Jan. 15 homicide in Tukwila. She declined to provide further details.
On Sunday, Tukwila Police Department spokesperson Sgt. Zachary Anderson would neither confirm nor deny if Lee is a suspect in the death of taxi driver Nicholas Hokema, whose body was discovered Jan. 15 in a Southcenter Mall parking lot. On Sunday, Hokema’s missing taxi was found in the Redmond Ridge neighborhood. Tukwila police impounded it, according to the King County Sheriff’s Office.