SEATTLE — A 38-year-old transient has pleaded guilty to fatally stabbing a sleeping stranger at a Bellevue Burger King.
Steven Padilla faces nearly 22 years in prison when he's sentenced on March 31.
He pleaded guilty to second-degree murder with a deadly weapon in King County Superior Court.
Detectives say Padilla emerged from a restroom, drew a 10-inch knife from his right jacket pocket, then approached 65-year old Jose Arias from behind and stabbed him at least twice in the upper torso on Aug. 17.
Arias stumbled outside the restaurant and into the parking lot where he collapsed and died.
Bellevue police caught Padilla a mile and a half away.
KIRO
