Hiker Whose Heart Stopped for 45 Minutes After Mt. Rainier Rescue Is Now Accused of Murder: Court Docs

A hiker whose heart stopped for 45 minutes after being rescued from Washington’s Mount Rainier National Park in 2020 is now charged with murdering a man after stealing $1,900 of drugs from him, court records allege.

Michael Knapinski — who was considered dead for 45 minutes in 2020 when his heart stopped before emergency room medical teams miraculously brought him back to life — has been arrested and charged with second-degree murder, according to an affidavit of probable cause obtained by PEOPLE.

Knapinski is accused of shooting and killing Jason Martinell, 42, of Granite Falls, in the parking lot of a Safeway store in Bothell on Oct. 25, according to the affidavit filed in Snohomish County Superior Court in Washington.

Text messages allegedly found on the victim’s phone revealed that Knapinski had reached out to him asking to buy what detectives believe was methamphetamine and fentanyl, according to the affidavit.

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On the night of Oct. 25, a friend of Martinell’s told detectives that they met at 87th Avenue SE in Woodinville with plans to race RC cars, according to the affidavit.

Sometime before 10 p.m., the friend said he saw Martinell speaking with the driver of a dark SUV “and talking to someone on a speaker phone,” the affidavit says.

The friend, who did not know who the man in the SUV was, said “he heard them make a deal to sell all of the victim’s drugs for approximately $1,900,” the affidavit alleges.

Martinell, who had brought the drugs with him that night, according to the friend, then got into Knapinski’s SUV, later identified as a Toyota Sequoia, and drove with him to the Safeway parking lot.

The friend followed in his vehicle and when he got to the parking lot, he saw the Sequoia parked in a stall.

At one point, the friend said he saw the passenger door open and close before the SUV drove away.

Moments later, he saw Martinell lying facedown on the ground, the affidavit alleges.

The friend fled the scene, later telling detectives “he was too scared to call police or go home,” the affidavit says.

The friend called 911 to report that his friend had been shot and left outside of a vehicle. Martinell was pronounced dead at the scene. He had been shot in the head, authorities said, according to the affidavit.

A friend of Knapinski’s later told police that Knapinski told him he had shot the victim, the affidavit alleges.

“Based on the nature of this crime, there is a substantial likelihood the defendant will commit another violent offense,” prosecutors wrote, reports Komo News. “It would appear that (Knapinski) chose to shoot and kill the victim for $1,900 worth of drugs. If he is able to take a man’s life for such a small amount of money, it is likely he would commit another violent offense.”

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Knapinski is being held at the Snohomish County Jail on $1 million bail.

Miraculous Survival

PEOPLE previously reported about Knapinski’s mountain rescue back in 2020. Per the Seattle Times, he had been hiking with a friend for a day when he became lost in temperatures as cold as 16 degrees.

Although he later died in the emergency room, doctors enabled his body to function so that he became conscious two days later.

“He came back from the dead,” Dr. Saman Arbabi of Harborview Medical Center told the Times. “Maybe not medically quite correct, but his heart wasn’t beating for more than 45 minutes. It’s amazing.”

It is unclear whether Knapinski has retained an attorney who can speak on his behalf.