Othello man arrested in CWU stabbing

OTHELLO - Police arrested an Othello man Friday in connection to a fatal stabbing of an Ellensburg man at a Central Washington University parking lot in July.

The Moses Lake Regional Tactical Response Team and U.S. Marshals apprehended Michael A. Barajas, 21, about 2 p.m. Friday at a home in the 900 block of Linda Lane south of Othello.

An arrest warrant for second-degree murder was issued Feb. 14 in Kittitas Superior Court for Barajas.

According to information from Central Washington University Police, Hector Mejia Villa, 23, was found in a campus parking lot July 20 with stab wounds. He was transported to Kittitas Valley Hospital were he died the next morning from a stab wound to the heart. Villa was not a student or employee at the university.

The university police department led the investigation because the incident occurred on school property.

Barajas is currently being held in Grant County Jail on a separate warrant for second-degree assault and harassments with threats to kill stemming from a Nov. 3 incident in Desert Aire where he and several others pulled up to a home on Hildy Way South. He allegedly exited the vehicle, pulled out a gun and threatened to kill a man, according to court records.

Attorneys with the Kittitas County Prosecutor's Office planned to speak with Grant County officials Monday to bring Barajas to Kittitas County on the murder charge. Barajas appeared in Grant County Superior Court Monday on the assault and harassment charges.