“It’s pretty scary.” Man charged with threatening to kill Pasco councilman and his wife

A Pasco city councilman’s neighbor is in jail, accused of making crude death threats against the councilman and his wife.

The threat was captured on security camera Friday and forwarded to Pasco police.

“It was pretty scary,” Councilman Peter Harpster told the Tri-City Herald this week. “I was at work and I called my wife and asked her to take our kids and leave.”

When police arrived to investigate, Robert A. Martinolich, 34, refused to come out of his West Pasco home, leading to a four-hour standoff Friday.

He is currently being held in the Franklin County Jail on $15,000 bail on suspicion of stalking. He is refusing to leave his cell, even to attend court on Monday or Tuesday.

If he continues to refuse, a judge may authorize the use of force to bring him to a court hearing.

Although Harpster has lived in the neighborhood with his wife and two school-age children for only a year, he said neighbors have told him Martinolich allegedly terrorized others for years.

He is often found in his yard, yelling disturbing things within earshot of the neighbors. One day, when a neighbor called the police, Martinolich was suspected of responding by killing one of their chickens and throwing it on their porch.

Harpster, who is a real estate developer, said he had 35 previous recordings of Martinolich yelling through the fence.

He often makes these statements in the middle of the night or early morning hours, Harpster said.

On Friday morning, Harpster received a phone notification about a new audio recording from his home’s security cameras.

In the message, Martinolich named Harpster and his wife, falsely claiming they were convicted felons and “deserved life in prison.”

“I don’t care, I’m not going to hurt your kids. … F–k Peter, f–k everybody… if everybody dies, I don’t care. … I’m in hell, three days before I make the call. …. I’ll shoot you. … and shut up,” according to court documents.

Pasco police Detective Julie Lee said in court documents that she found the statements alarming.

“Martinolich not only threatened Harpster, but also his wife by mentioning her name and providing the approximate ages of her children,” she wrote. “Martinolich even provided what I interpret as a 72-hour time frame in which he would kill them.”

Police and SWAT clash

According to public records, Martinolich had not left his home for weeks before making the threats and was often seen in the backyard of his mother’s home.

When police tried to reach Martinolich by phone Friday about the threat, he did not answer. There were reports he had firearms, so police called the Tri-City Regional SWAT team to help arrest him.

Although he did not resist arrest, he did not respond to police demands and did not leave his home for four hours. Martinolich has no prior convictions, according to an online search of court records.

Investigators found a .40-caliber pistol, a .22-caliber rifle and numerous rounds of ammunition once they entered the home.

Harpster said he was impressed with the speed of Pasco police. He arrived at the station at 11:30 a.m. and Martinolich was arrested at 8 p.m.

He hopes what happened to him will encourage others in the community to also report threatening behaviour to the police.