Skateboarder pleads guilty in fatal U District attack

A 23-year-old who used his skateboard to beat a man who died a few days later pleaded guilty yesterday to first-degree manslaughter.

Timothy R. Strano entered an Alford plea in King County Superior Court, meaning he did not admit to hitting 33-year-old Demetri Andrews but acknowledged that a jury would probably find him guilty.

The incident, which occurred in Seattle's University District in April, stemmed from a traffic dispute.

Andrews, of Renton, was driving home with his girlfriend after an evening lecture when Strano and another skateboarder cut him off at the intersection of Northeast 45th Street and University Way Northeast, according to charging papers.

Words were exchanged, and Andrews got out and argued with Strano's companion, who pushed Andrews to the ground, prosecutors say. Strano swung at him "with all his might," according to one witness, and then ran, charging papers say.

Andrews, a real-estate agent, construction worker and father to a 6-year-old son, slipped into a coma the next day and died two days later.

In court yesterday, Strano was escorted past Andrews' mother, Rothopi Andrews, who shouted at him.

Prosecutors originally charged Strano with second-degree murder, but Senior Deputy Prosecutor Steve Fogg said the charge was changed because of a recent state Supreme Court decision saying a person can't be convicted of murder if the death was the unintended result of an assault.

Prosecutors decried the state Supreme Court ruling — saying it could potentially affect hundreds of cases — and have asked the court to reconsider. Strano, who would have faced a standard sentence of just over 10 years to more than 18 years if convicted of second-degree murder, now probably faces 6-½ to 8-½ years behind bars.

"A few years is not worth my son's life," Andrews' mother said after the hearing. "... Where is the justice for my boy?" Andrews was a Mercer Island High School graduate who remained friends with his classmates, was active in the local Greek community and helped out at his family's restaurant, Niko's Place, across from KeyArena. The family sold the business after Andrews' death.

Janet Burkitt: 206-515-5689 or jburkitt@seattletimes.com.