Seattle Slaying Suspect Arrested In B.C.

The U.S. Marshals Service confirmed yesterday that a man arrested in British Columbia last week is a career criminal - one of the agency's "15 Most Wanted" fugitives - and is accused of murdering a Seattle man.

Scott Allan Freeburg, 38, was arrested Thursday in Surrey, B.C., by federal marshals after an informant tipped Canadian authorities about a man who was driving a stolen truck and carrying a gun, said Dennis Behrend, supervisory deputy marshal in Seattle.

In addition to a long criminal history that includes arrests for escapes, robbery and firearms violations in California and Washington, Freeburg was accused in the November 1994 shooting death of Trinidad Martinez, 27, of Seattle.

King County prosecutors charged Freeburg with first-degree murder in Martinez's death and with the attempted murder of Martinez's wife. At the time of his arrest, Freeburg was driving a truck stolen from Prince Rupert, B.C., and was carrying a .45-caliber automatic gun, Behrend said.

"Based on the information we received, we set up surveillance and eventually stopped him in the truck," Behrend said.

"At first, he gave us a false identification, but we booked him for possession of a gun, and we ran a check and found out it was Freeburg."

Freeburg will likely be returned to Washington state within a week. A hearing is scheduled for tomorrow morning in Vancouver, B.C., Behrend said.

Freeburg fled a corrections facility in Washington in 1978 and robbed a bank, Behrend said. He was recaptured in 1979 and sentenced by a federal judge to eight years for the robbery.

Freeburg again escaped from federal custody in California. He was charged with assaulting a peace officer with a deadly weapon, robbery and false imprisonment.

Freeburg was then sentenced to nine more years for trying to kill an inmate in California, Behrend said.

After his federal term, Freeburg was transferred to Washington to finish serving time for the bank robbery.

He was paroled to a Seattle halfway house, where he lived until disappearing in November 1994, about the time Martinez was shot to death.

Freeburg apparently went with a friend to Martinez's residence in South Seattle when an argument broke out over a drug deal, Behrend said. Freeburg then shot and killed Martinez, prosecutors allege. He also allegedly fired a shot at Martinez's wife, Behrend said. She was not injured.

According to Jack Williams, the deputy marshal assigned to the case, Freeburg has ties to the white-supremacist group Brotherhood, Hell's Angels and the Irish Republican Army.

If convicted of the Seattle slaying, Freeburg faces a life sentence under the state's "three strikes" law.

Material from Associated Press is included in this report.