FIVE CHARGED WITH TRYING TO KILL DRUG INFORMANT IN SPOKANE

SPOKANE, Wash. -- Five people have been arrested and charged with
robbing and trying to kill a man whom they had arranged to sell crack cocaine.

Only after federal agents swarmed into the house as the man fled
through a window did the five learn he was a confidential informant
from the Drug Enforcement Administration, according to documents
filed Thursday in Spokane County Superior Court.

[Names redacted], pleaded innocent to charges of conspiracy to commit
first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, first-degree
kidnapping, first-degree robbery and second-degree assault.

Judge Maryann C. Moreno set bail at $2 million on [Name redacted], $1
million each on [Names redacted], $500,000 on [Name redacted] and
$250,000 on [Name redacted]. Trial was scheduled for June 26.

Investigators wrote that the informant, who was not identified, went
to Fletcher's house March 21 after arranging with Julius Lewis to buy
nine ounces of crack cocaine for $4,000.

When he arrived, Lewis accused the man of stealing drugs from his
girlfriend's house. He was made to disrobe, revealing an electronic
recording and surveillance device, but the group apparently didn't
recognize what it was and put it back in the man's clothing, then
prepared to shoot him, according to court documents.

Federal agents, monitoring the conversation through the device,
rushed the house as he leaped through a window. He said the gun
failed to fire when the trigger was pulled, but he still needed 168
stitches to close the wounds from the glass.

Meanwhile, the five were held at gunpoint pending the arrival of police.