Man jailed for allegedly robbing Ellensburg youngster at knifepoint
An 18-year-old Cle Elum man was arrested for first-degree assault Wednesday after he allegedly robbed and put a knife to the neck of a youngster who was riding his bike behind the Ellensburg Safeway. Cameron Charles Avery was ordered held on $250,000 bail following his first appearance in Kittitas County Superior Court on Thursday. Avery was jailed on accusations of first-degree assault, first-degree robbery and felony harassment. He is scheduled to be arraigned on the criminal charges Monday. The robbery was reported just after 10 p.m. May 24, after two boys who were riding their bikes in the alley behind Safeway said they were robbed by two people wearing black ski masks. One of the boys told police he was grabbed by his bicycle helmet and knocked to the ground, then dragged by his helmet and kicked and punched. The youngster said one of the pair — later identified by investigators as Avery — threatened to kill him and told the boy to give him anything he had and put a black pocketknife to his neck. The youngster gave him a Foger vape that had been tucked into his sock. The other masked person, identified in court papers as a teenager from Cle Elum, appeared to be videotaping the robbery on a cell phone, according to court papers. Police eventually identified both of the suspects after seeing them outside Fred Meyer and comparing them to security video and driver’s license photographs. During Avery’s preliminary appearance in superior court, Deputy Prosecutor Hunter Slezak said the defendant’s record in Washington appeared to be limited to a single traffic ticket. Avery’s juvenile record in Texas from 2022 and 2023, however, included a felony charge of unauthorized use of a motor vehicle. Slezak said charges had also been sent to a prosecutor in Brazoria County for misdemeanor assault with bodily injury and a terroristic threat against a family member. “It was referred to the prosecutor and then it says ‘supervisory caution.’ Frankly, I’m not sure what that means. But those charges do exist,” Slezak told Judge Chris Herion. “The state is incredibly alarmed to read the allegations in this probable cause affidavit,” Slezak added. Slezak noted the allegations that Avery and a masked accomplice “attacked, jumped, ambushed — however you’d like to describe it — two other juveniles behind the Safeway.” He said Avery put a knife to the youngster’s throat, dragged him back into the alley and threatened to kill him, “seemingly all over a vape pen.” Defense attorney Michael Hart questioned the basis for probable cause for the offense of first-degree assault. Hart said it wasn’t clear if Avery was armed with a deadly weapon at the time of the incident. It was described as a “dull knife” in the probable cause affidavit, he noted. Hart asked for bail of $25,000. The judge recalled the defendant had been identified in a photo from the robbery by his mother. “There is probable cause and the allegations are very, very serious,” Herion said. Herion also noted Avery was “relatively new to the area” and referenced his court history in Texas. The judge agreed to the prosecution’s bail request for $250,000. “At this point, today, the court is going to impose that bail,” Herion said.
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