Psychiatric Patient Charged With Murder, Bail Set at $1M

TACOMA, Wash. (AP) — A man recently released from a Washington state psychiatric hospital was charged with murder in the death of a transient man found dead along a Pierce County road.

Pierce County prosecutors say 42-year-old Douglas Murray was charged Monday and had bail set at $1 million.

The News Tribune reports defense attorney David Katayama entered a not guilty plea on Murray's behalf.

The slain man, identified as 41-year-old Thomas Fite, was found Thursday. Police say they arrested Murray in a fast-food restaurant nearby wearing a bloody shirt.

The Pierce County Medical Examiner's Office says Fite was strangled.

Murray had been arrested previously for stealing a woman's gas can and dousing her with gasoline as she lit a cigarette. He was sent to Western State Hospital for a competency evaluation and was found competent to stand trial.

A psychologist said he wasn't a danger to himself or others.