



Snohomish drive-by shooter changes plea to guilty, will be sentenced



SNOHOMISH — Drive-by shooter Hayden Baus, 18, has traded a first-degree assault charge for three second-degree assault charges in advance of an Oct 10 sentencing hearing. Baus also faces one drive-by shooting charge and an arson charge.

The Snohomish teen has been described as the ringleader of a group of five youth who participated in the July 6 and 7, 2017 attacks in Snohomish targeting a former classmate and rival from Snohomish High School.

Baus appeared in prison garb for the Sept. 7 hearing, speaking in single words as he said he understood the five charges against him and pleading guilty to each.

Baus has waived his right to a trial and a sentencing date was set for Oct. 10 during the brief proceeding.

Baus’s second-degree arson and new second-degree assault charges each carry sentences ranging from 53 to 70 months. The drive-by

shooting charge typically carries a sentence of 77 to 102 months.

Added up, if sentenced on all five charges this could mean a prison sentence of between 24 and about 31 years for the 18-year-old.

No one was injured in the July 7 shooting in the normally quiet neighborhood northeast of Blackmans Lake, but bullets went through walls and struck a neighbor’s bed as well as the wall behind their baby’s crib.

Baus used a 9 mm semi-automatic pistol, while a second shooter, Jaden McDougall, fired a .223-caliber semi-automatic AR-15 rifle.

Baus, 17 at the time, did the shooting following an arson and assault the previous day where Baus and the other teens set the victim’s

Cadillac on fire using fireworks.

Due to the severity of his crimes, Baus is being tried as an adult. He initially pleaded not guilty to the crimes. They were his first felonies, adding to a prior record of misdemeanor assaults, robbery and theft beginning in 2014.

The other three teens in the car, 17-year-old Joseph Evol Fenner, and 18-year-olds Kristopher Oliver Peterson and Brandon Robert Davis, are from Everett and were exonerated in the shooting.

Check out our online Publications! Best seen in the Firefox or Chrome browsers