Confessed Murderer Of Everett Firefighter Fails To Show For Sentencing

Editor’s Update Saturday 12:25 PM: Officers with the Snohomish County Violent Offender Taskforce spent all night tracking Nash down and took him into custody at 10 Am this morning. He has been booked into the Snohomish County Jail and his sentencing hearing is set for Thursday May 13th.

On March 25th 47-year-old Elmer Nash Junior entered a guilty plea to first degree murder in the death of Everett Firefighter Gary Parks during a fire at Everett Community College on February 16th 1987. We documented what happened in court that day in this story.

At that hearing Nash acknowledged he understood what his guilty plea meant and that while his attorney had arranged an exceptionally reduced sentence of about 3.5 years in jail the Judge was under no obligation to follow that agreement. Nash plead guilty and Judge David Kurtz released him on his own recognizance to return today at 1 PM for sentencing.

At 1 PM Friday afternoon Mr. Nash’s attorney was in court, two deputy prosecutors were in court, family members and former firefighters who worked with Gary Parks were in court. Mr. Nash was not. After waiting some time and multiple attempts to contact Mr. Nash the Judge ordered a no-bail arrest warrant. Everett Police are now actively searching for Mr. Nash.

At 2:45 PM Judge Kurtz opened court advising of the warrant for Mr. Nash. He also rescheduled a new sentencing date for next Thursday May 13th at 1:00 PM. The Judge then advised he would allow those who wished to address the court about sentencing and could not make it back next week to speak to the court. Bruce Hansen, a retired Assistant Fire Marshal who flew to Everett from his home in Indiana gave an impact statement. He described Gary Parks as a friend, partner and mentor. He asked the Judge to not follow the plea agreement but to go farther beyond three and a half years, urging a sentence for the rest of Nash’s life. “This was not Gary Parks fire,” said Hansen, “This was Elmer Nash’s fire.”

The standard sentence for 1st degree murder is 411 – 548 months in prison which works out to about 43 years.

Everett Police are asking anyone who knows Nash’s whereabouts to call their tip line at (425) 257- 8450.