Roommate Describes Bad Blood -- Witness Says He Once Shot Man Bachmeier Is Accused Of Killing

The former roommate of slaying victim James Bradley Wren testified yesterday that he shot Wren in the leg following an argument and later threatened to kill him.

Reading from a statement he made to a King County detective on Oct. 14, Emmet Marcel testified he told Wren after shooting him, "I could put one more shot right between your . . . eyes. It would be all over and done with."

Wren survived the July 21 shooting and, less than a month later, on Aug. 10, disappeared after being seen in the back seat of a patrol car driven by former King County Police Sgt. Mathias J. Bachmeier.

Bachmeier, 49, is on trial for aggravated first-degree murder in connection with the slaying of Wren, 35, whose body was found Feb. 2 in Cougar Mountain Regional Park.

Prosecutors allege Bachmeier torched his Renton home to collect insurance money. When Renton Police targeted him as a suspect in the arson, Bachmeier picked Wren at random as a scapegoat, forcing him to sign a written confession to the arson before killing him, prosecutors allege.

Bachmeier had met Wren when he responded to a dispute at Wren's home in Preston.

The defense alleged during opening arguments that Marcel, or his late brother, Robert Marcel, were far more likely than Bachmeier to have killed Wren.

The defense cited the shooting of Wren by Emmet Marcel. Also, Robert Marcel was involved in a dispute with Wren on the day Wren disappeared. Robert Marcel hanged himself in February, several days after talking with defense attorneys about the case.

Yesterday, Marcel was called upon to testify by the prosecution, which sought to show that Marcel was unlikely to have had the opportunity or ability to kill Wren. Marcel said he last saw Wren on Aug. 10 when Wren dropped him off at a tavern in Tukwila, where he drank several beers with a friend.

Yesterday it sometimes appeared that Marcel, not Bachmeier, was on trial for murder.

At one point during his testimony, Marcel protested having to read his statement to King County Police.

Then he was ordered by King County Superior Court Judge Michael Spearman to simply "listen to the question and answer the question."

Earlier, Marcel admitted that he shot his roommate for hurting his hands while they were building a shed for a friend, Betty Donaldson, in Tacoma last July 20. He said Wren had inadvertently struck his hands four times and that he became angry and decided to shoot him.

He said he and Wren left Donaldson's house and visited Marcel's brother. Following a dispute, Marcel said, he left and went home, where he slept on the couch with his gun tucked underneath.

During the early morning of July 21, when Wren returned home, Marcel said he shot Wren in the leg, six inches above the ankle. Afterward, Marcel said, instead of taking Wren to the hospital, he gave him a cold pack and some aspirin as Wren lay wounded in the bathroom of the house.

Later, Marcel said he and Wren concocted a story Wren would tell police about how Wren was shot by some men in the Hilltop area of Tacoma.