Hearing for Fall City mass shooting again postponed
Published 4:13 pm Monday, July 7, 2025
The decline hearing to decide whether a Fall City teen should be tried in juvenile or adult court has been postponed again, over eight months since he was charged with fatally shooting five of his family members.
The Oct. 21, 2024, incident left two parents and three children dead, as well as one child injured, in a house on Lake Alice Road in the Fall City area. The 15-year-old accused of committing the homicide has been in juvenile detention since, as he and his defense team wait to learn whether he will be tried in juvenile or adult court.
The court held another status conference June 10, at which King County Superior Court Judge Veronica Galván expected to schedule the decline hearing, but she did not end up doing so.
While the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office is ready to move forward — and has requested the teen be tried as an adult — the teen’s defense team says it is still missing needed materials, such as the crime scene report. The defense told Galván it needed six more weeks before it would be ready to schedule a decline hearing.
Galván set a deadline of July 21 for the defense to file a brief, July 28 for a response from the prosecution, and Aug. 4 for a reply from the defense if they so choose.
The judge also set the next status conference for Sept. 9, with an expectation that the decline hearing would not be far behind.
The teen was present at the June 10 hearing, according to reporting from KOMO News.
In November 2024, the teen’s attorneys said they had a possible defense for him. Shortly thereafter, the prosecuting team filed a motion alleging that the defense had altered evidence at the crime scene during a walk-through.
The 15-year-old was charged Oct. 24, 2024, with five counts of first degree murder and one count of first-degree attempted murder. He is accused of killing his parents, Mark and Sarah Humiston, as well as his siblings, Katheryn Humiston, 7, Joshua Humiston, 9, and Benjamin Humiston, 13. An 11-year-old sibling had run to the neighbor’s house for help after finding her family members shot and allegedly getting shot at by the suspect.
This is a developing story.
