A 36-year-old man police say they caught in the act burglarizing a Capitol Hill home has spent nearly all of his adult life in prison. Convicted of second-degree murder in 1993 at the age of 19, the accused burglar now faces another five years in jail for charges he faces in connection with a February break-in that police say netted four PlayStation games and a small pile of video game cables and equipment.

Guy Lee Bash was arrested by Seattle police after they found him crawling out a window of a home on E. Republican near 19th Ave around 2:30 AM on February 18. According to the police report on the incident, the woman who lived in the home called 911, whispering that there shouldn’t be anybody else in the house but that she could hear somebody inside. Arriving officers said they saw Bash exiting the house in a hurry, his backpack flipping open as he dropped four Playstation 3 video games onto the deck. Inside the pack, police found two wireless PS3 controllers, an HDMI cable and a power cord.

For $150 worth of electronics plus copies of the games Full Auto 2, Guitar Hero, Baja and Mirrors Edge, Bash now faces the prospect of returning to jail for another five years.

At the age of 19, Bash — who goes by the name Guy Granroos — was sentenced to 16 years in jail for killing 26-year-old Phillip Hayes. Accounts of the June, 1993 murder vary only in the details. There was an all-night party. Bash had an accomplice charged for attempting to hide the knife used in the attack. Bash “beat, kicked and stabbed” his victim.

According to documents prepared by King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg’s office, Bash was in trouble with the law prior to the murder conviction, busted for possession of stolen property, assault, two instances of car theft and burglary before the 1993 crime put him away into his mid-30s. Even while in custody, Bash was hit with a conviction on a charge of custodial assault in 2007.

From prison, Bash sent an e-mail to the Alliance of Incarcerated Canadians/Foreigners in American Prisons that has been posted on the organization’s Yahoo Group. Here is an excerpt:

 its no secret,i’ve been incarcerated inwash, st. dept. of corr. since the (yr 1994) under the felony & alpha plea murder in the 2nd degree, which after 12 of a 16 yr plea bargain is under scrutiny. thanks to andress/hinton, i am one of the 750 cases since 1972, to possibly be overturned. i have a maximum release date of aug.2009 & a minimum release date of june 2008 but i will end up serving my max because i have no incoming ($$) in my spendable account balance, i am homeless, i have no college degree, i have no resources i can turn to in times of uncertainty, especially; after i serve a completed term of 16 yrs.

i am not this big of a burden, nor is my birth mother orher siblings!!!! yeah (we) were born & raised below povertyw/i the emerald city of seattle washington but that shouldn’tbe a factor or the deciding factory to be shunned indirectly.

Bash now faces arraignment in days on charges of residential burglary in a process that has been held up as prosecutors worked to establish a bail higher than the $15,000 that was initially set. He’s a “two-strike” felon — a third, more serious conviction would put him away for life. Residential burglary doesn’t qualify as that third strike but King County Prosecutor spokesperon Dan Donohoe said Bash could face another 63 to 84 month in prison if convicted. If that scenario plays out, Bash will have spent half of his time on the planet behind bars.

A fire this afternoon in Summit Ave’s Biltmore Apartments turned out to be only a smoky ‘food on the stove’ blaze. A full response by the Seattle Fire Department filled the street on Summit near Olive Way as 15 emergency units arrived following the 3:20 PM alarm. Firefighters who entered the apartment discovered a smoke filled unit — and an undisclosed recipe gone wrong.

The apartment building was constructed in 1924 according to its records in the Department of Neighborhoods historical sites list. The apartments are now worth more than $10 million according to King County Records.

Thanks to @EricaToelle for providing this video of the scene and an interview with a man who said he was surprised to find out that firefighters were responding to his apartment unit.

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Speaking of rising Capitol Hill real estate prices, the secretive owner of the lot that Seattle Parks has its eye on for a new Hill green space declined to come out of the shadows and talk about why there’s now a Honey Bucket-brand fence surrounding the corner of Federal and Republican. By e-mail, a lawyer representing Fedrep Investors, LLC responded to our request for an interview:

I forwarded your email to the owner, and was asked to let you know that the owner does not have any information to share regarding its plans at the moment.  If you want to check back with me in two weeks, I may have more information for you.

The city it is trying to negotiate with the landowner to purchase the property but the two sides have not been able to agree on a price, according to reps from Seattle Parks. We reported earlier about the lot’s recent history and the failed townhome project that left the space empty for the last few years.

While Capitol Hill real estate apparently got a sleepy start to 2010 with January sale prices lagging the rest of the city, the sale prices for Capitol Hill area homes and condos woke up in February, with a median price 34% higher than 2009, according to data provided by the Northwest Multiple Listing Service.

The surge was driven in large part by a near 46% leap in median sales prices for single-family homes on the Hill, the Central District and in Madison Park. For comparison, prices in the rest of the city climbed 1.4% vs. February 2009. Also, not only were prices higher than last year, but activity surged among single family home shoppers in the area with 39 sales closing in the month. In February 2009, only 17 closed.

Source: MLS

Capitol Hill condo sales also held their own with prices climbing 16.5% vs. February 2009 on a similar number of total sales.

UPDATE: Local real estate skeptical inquirer Seattle Bubble takes a look at the February data and doesn’t see much happy in it, even finding a downside to the seemingly good news for real estate agents on Capitol Hill.

UPDATE: We asked NWMLS about the underpinnings of the increase in Capitol Hill median sales prices compared to 2009. Additional data sent to CHS shows that an increase in high-end sales helped drive the average higher. In February 2009, there were six homes that sold for $700,000-plus, according to the data provided to us by NWMLS.  In 2010, there were 16 such homes sold.

UPDATE 3/10/10 11:50 AM:
The rational crew over at Seattle Bubble sent over this fever line of Capitol Hill and central Seattle’s median price fluctuations over time. Bubble’s takeaway: February 09’s median prices on the Hill were freakishly low, and February 10’s prices were freakishly high.

In product placement that would make even the most cynically produced reality television program look nonprofit in comparison, we caught this Pike/Pine resident availing herself of a morning meal of treats smooshed to a tree outside CHS sponsor Cupcake Royale. Tomorrow, we’ll have full coverage of Petey the acai loving dog’s visit to Healeo.

The average resident of the Harvard Court Apartments lives on about $13,000 a year — and is not considering suicide. In a discussion with CHS following two suicides in two weeks at the low income housing tower at 610 Harvard Ave E, Virginia Felton, director of strategic planning and communications for Seattle Housing Authority, said her agency doesn’t believe Harvard Court’s residents should be treated differently than residents in any apartment building. “Our approach is as a landlord,” Felton told CHS. “We’re not trying to ‘suicide proof’ our building.”

Felton said that SHA did have staff from Aging and Disability Services available to help and talk with any residents that needed support.

Felton confirmed that the two recent deaths were both Harvard Court residents. Contrary to the information we received from the Seattle Fire Department, the first death was a woman, Felton said. This weekend’s death was a man who lived in the tower.

To put the recent deaths in perspective, Felton said that while suicides have happened at the 80-apartment building in the past she and the Harvard Court building manager could remember fewer than five in the last ten years or so. “This is pretty unusual,” Felton said. 

SHA provides services to about 27,000 people. Some of those people, it turns out, have mental health issues. Some are thinking about suicide. Some decided to end their lives. For Felton, it’s a matter of making buildings like Harvard Court a good place to live. “Should we make it so windows don’t open?” Felton asked. “For those residents that don’t have mental health as an issue, that’s not a solution.”

Two notable civic events fill your Tuesday night on Capitol Hill — one that will help determine what decisions the city makes regarding expanding Restricted Parking Zones on Capitol Hill, the other a discussion about what problems a proposed set of pandhandling restrictions would solve and what problems it would not.

First, a reminder that the Seattle Department of Transportation holds a meeting Tuesday night to discuss the creation of new Restricted Parking Zone areas on Capitol Hill. Details on the proposals are here. Meeting starts at 6:30 PM at Seattle Central’s Room 1110.

Over at Seattle U, City Councilmember Tim Burgess will be on hand as the Seattle Human Rights Commission’s Public Safety Task Force holds a panel discussion on “aggressive” panhandling. CHS hasn’t wrapped its head completely around the proposed legislation — while there are a few around the Hill who qualify as merely “irritating” panhandlers, we haven’t experienced anybody we’d describe as truly aggressive in a long time. In fact, some of the Eastside kids doing it for fun need to turn it up a notch if they want to get anything from these pockets. Of course, don’t usually have cash these days anyhow. Maybe they know.

Panel Discussion on Proposed Seattle Panhandling Restrictions

 WHAT:           The Human Rights Commission’s Public Safety Task Force will host a public panel and discussion on Councilmember Tim Burgess’s proposed restrictions on panhandling near ATMs and parking pay stations, or repeatedly asking for money from a person who has said “no”.  Panelists will discuss the pros and cons of new restrictions as well as the enforcement of current anti-aggressive panhandling laws.

 WHEN:           Tuesday, March 9, 2010, 7:00 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.

WHERE:        Seattle University School of Law

                        Sullivan Hall, room C5

                        901 12th Avenue, Seattle

 WHO:             Tim Burgess, City Councilmember, Chair, Public Safety & Education Committee

                        Jon Scholes, Policy Director, Downtown Seattle Association

                        Timothy Harris, Executive Director, Real Change

                        Anita Khandelwal, Attorney, Defender Association – Racial Disparity Project

 SPONSORS:            Seattle Human Rights Commission

                        Seattle Office for Civil Rights

                        Seattle University Jewish Law Student Association

                        Seattle University Student Bar Association

 OTHER:         Panel discussion preceded by the Seattle Human Rights Commission regular monthly meeting 6:00 to 6:45 p.m.; open to press and public.