Death closes Sliger case

A charge of burglary against Jacob Sliger, 25, Pullman, was dismissed Nov. 19 in superior court after the court reported Sliger was deceased. Also, a bench warrant which had been issued with the bond set at $10,000 was quashed. The warrant had been issued Nov. 2 after Sliger failed to make a first appearance in court Oct. 30 on the burglary charge.

Dec. 2, a court order was filed dismissing financial obligations Sliger owed the court. The order listed nine different case numbers for Sliger going back to 2006.

The motions to end the Sliger case came after the prosecutor’s office was advised that Sliger had died in Pullman Nov. 13.

County Coroner Peter Martin reported Dec. 3 that Sliger died of an accidental drug overdose. The coroner’s investigation was conducted because Sliger’s death at a residence was unattended.

Martin said Sliger died from an overdose of illegal drugs. He said the investigation determined the overdose was accidental.

The pending burglary charge alleged Sliger had entered a neighbor’s residence at a mobile home park on S. Grand in Pullman the night of Aug. 28-29. The charge was the second felony faced by Sliger this year. He had been sentenced in July to three months in jail on a guilty plea to a charge of third degree assault for spitting on an officer in Pullman during an investigation of a fight June 4 in the Valley Road Playfield area of Pullman on NE Merman Drive.

Sliger was charged with a Pullman burglary on NE Colorado Street in October of 2012. That charge eventually ended with a guilty plea for assaulting one of the residents at the Colorado Street address. In the 2012 judgment, Sliger was ordered to pay $2,678 in court expenses, fees and the costs of calling of a jury to hear the original burglary case. According to the court record, he failed to show up on time on the day of the trial, and the prospective jurors had been dismissed by the time he arrived. The case was resolved when he agreed to enter a plea of guilty to the assault charge.