Man Charged with Armed Robbery and Rape in Shoreline and Bellevue

A Renton man was charged Wednesday with armed robbery in Bellevue and robbery and after a King County Sheriff's Detective tracked down one of the stolen phones, the King County Prosecuting Attorney's Office reported.

Prosecutors said that Charles Linnell Bluford, 38, robbed two women in January and March and raped one of them at gunpoint, according to charging papers.

Bluford faces charges of Rape First Degree and Robbery First Degree. Bail was set at $1.2 million, according to the King County Prosecuting Attorney's Office.

One of the victims was robbed at gunpoint in the early morning hours of Jan. 26, 2012, in Bellevue when she drove into her underground garage at her apartment complex in the 10300 block of Northeast 12th Street, according to charging papers.

The 26-year-old woman told Bellevue Police officers that a man stepped next to her driver's seat as she was getting out of the car and put the barrel of a handgun next to her cheek and said, "Give me your bag or I'll shoot you."

The woman gave him her Coach purse, which also contained her driver's license Social Security card, credit and debit cards and cell phone, according to the charging papers. The man then searched her body, including putting his hand in her underwear, and he fled, according to charging papers.

Two months later, on March 10, 2012, a Shoreline woman reported that she parked her car in her driveway in the 100 block of 165th Place and opened her garage door when a man approached her holding a gun and told her to be quiet or he would kill her, according to charging papers. The man took her wedding ring and her purse, which included her T-Mobile cell phone, and pushed her into the garage and beat and raped her, according to charging papers.

The woman said that the attacked stopped when a man inside a dark green car yelled at the attacker to "let go," according to charging papers. The King County Sheriff's detective noted that the woman also said there was a woman inside the green car. 

Three days later, T-Mobile reported that someone had put a different SIM card into the rape victim's phone. The King County Sheriff's Office served a search warrant on T-Mobile for the data, and the phone was tracked to a Renton woman two days later, according to charging papers.

The woman told the King County Sheriff's detective that she received the phone from her friend and Bluford, according to charging papers. The woman had a picture of the couple on her phone, in which police say that Bluford fit the physical and clothing description of the man involved in the rape in Shoreline, police said.

The couple were also identified by name and license plate by the Seattle Police Department as suspects in another armed robbery, which took place Jan. 27, according to charging papers.

Later that day, Bluford was stopped driving a dark green car with the registered owner as a passenger, according to charging papers. They were both arrested on misdemeanor warrants, according to the charging papers.

The couple also had filed marriage license paperwork that day, according to charging papers.

A King County Sheriff's Detective searched the registered owner's purse after she waived her rights, and found the rape victim's wedding ring, according charging papers. 

After a warrant was served on the couple's home, other items, including the rape victim's purse, the Coach purse taken from the Bellevue robbery and a credit card taken in an armed robbery in Seattle, according to charging papers.

A number of robberies fit the methods of operation throughout King County, Seattle, Renton, Bellevue and Shoreline between January and March, according to the charging papers.

That includes two armed robberies that occurred in Bellevue and March 10 with similar methods of operation, though it could not be confirmed by Bellevue Patch Wednesday night whether either of those robberies were connected with this case. The descriptions of the suspects in the Bellevue robberies differed from each other.

Bluford had been convicted in the past of robbery in New Jersey, Armed Robbery and Criminal Conspiracy in South Carolina and possession of cocaine in Florida, according to charging papers.

Arraignment on both cases is scheduled for April 5 at 9 a.m. at the Norm Maleng Regional Justice Center, according to the King County Prosecuting Attorney's Office.