Innis Arden Man Cleared -- Homeowner Won't Be Charged In Killing Of Intruder

King County prosecutors today said the actions of an Innis Arden homeowner who killed an intruder and wounded another were justified and he will not be charged with a crime.

"Citizens have the right to defend themselves against criminals who invade the home," said King County Prosecutor Norm Maleng.

Gene Maddox, 41, told police he shot the intruders after they entered his house in the 16000 block of 10th Avenue Northwest early March 17. One of the intruders apparently had a knife and one held a baseball bat.

Maddox shot one suspect, Adam Costin, 15 of Mountlake Terrace, in the back, killing him.

Another suspect, David Roe, 18, was wounded. He and Dennis Kittleson, 24, have been charged in King County Superior Court with burglary.

Maddox, who called 911 after the shooting, told King County police he was awakened shortly after 8 a.m. by the sound of breaking glass. He grabbed a handgun in his bedroom and fired when he came face-to-face with two intruders in a hallway.

State law allows a homeowner to use deadly force in self-defense.

Maddox fired eight or nine shots from a 9mm handgun he bought last fall after becoming worried about his safety.

Costin's body was found in dense brush down a slope from Maddox's back yard about a half-hour later.

One of the shots fired by Maddox struck Roe in the groin. Kittleson drove him to Northwest Hospital and then fled. Kittleson was later arrested in Grays Harbor County.

A relative said at the time of the shooting that Maddox became very worried after the fatal beating of a teenage girl in Innis Arden last year and this year's stabbing death of a woman in Richmond Beach.