Sex offender charged with raping Skyway woman

Michael Shawn Stanley was being held on $1 million bail in the jail at the Maleng Regional Justice Center in Kent; his arraignment is 8:30 a.m. March 16 on the 12th floor of the King County Courthouse in Seattle.

A 49-year-old homeless man convicted of raping an elderly woman in Edmonton, Canada, in 1988 has been charged with second-degree rape in the assault of a Skyway woman.

Michael Shawn Stanley was being held on $1 million bail in the jail at the Maleng Regional Justice Center in Kent; his arraignment is 8:30 a.m. March 16 on the 12th floor of the King County Courthouse in Seattle.

He was also charged Monday with first-degree burglary with sexual motivation.

Stanley, a U.S. citizen, made news in October 2013 when he cut the monitoring bracelet from his ankle and crossed unchallenged into the United States from Canada, according to charging documents.

He was convicted in Canada in 1988 of raping an elderly Edmonton woman during a home-invasion robbery, according to documents. He was convicted in 2004 of assaulting two boys, ages 9 and 13, in a bathroom.

Canadian officials decided not to extradite Stanley from Washington state.

If convicted, Stanley, classified as a Level 3 sex offender in Washington, faces a minimum prison term of 15 to 20 years and possibly life in prison.

A longer term is possible because prosecutors included a “rapid recidivism aggravator.” Stanley was released from prison six days before the Skyway woman was raped, after serving time for his conviction for second-degree burglary. Employees of a Des Moines nursing home called 911 after finding him in a break room, wearing an employee badge with the name “Maureen” and holding two four-inch steak knives, according to court documents.

The 69-year-old victim was familiar with Stanley because he did yard work for her last summer. He showed up at her home on South 115th Street at about 10 p.m. Friday, Sept. 27, to ask her whether she had more work for him, according to charging documents. She didn’t.

She allowed him to use her bathroom. He then went outside to wait for a bus and she went for a walk. He was gone when she returned. As she brushed her teeth in the bathroom, Stanley appeared behind her, naked. He may have entered the house through a window.

They fought in the bathroom. He covered her face and mouth with her hand, interfering with her breathing. According to charging documents, she decided it was better to be raped than killed.

Stanley then told her he needed to go to detox. She wouldn’t drive him that night but she told him she and her church friends could take him the next day. They exchanged phone numbers and she drove him to a friend’s house.

He returned at about 8 a.m. Saturday. A friend told her to call 911. Stanley was found two blocks away and arrested. She was treated at Harborview Medical Center.