Angelo Felice pleaded guilty to second degree murder on June 13 in the 2011 stabbing death of West Seattle resident Hokum Jeebs, well-known as a vaudeville-inspired performer (seen above).
20-year-old Angelo Felice pleaded guilty on June 13 to second degree murder in the stabbing death of Fauntleroy resident Hokum W. Jeebs (aka Robert Stabile) in West Seattle on February 16, 2011.
Felice was originally charged with first degree murder, but prosecutors accepted his plea to the lesser charge.
Prosecutors believe Felice intended to rob Jeebs, a well known performer of Vaudeville-inspired entertainment, but ended up fatally stabbing him with a kitchen knife and fleeing the victim’s 44th Ave S.W. home.
He was tracked down by police the next morning thanks to several calls from people who saw a man covered in mud emerging from a ravine near 16th Ave S.W. and S.W. Holden.
According to charging documents, Felice admitted to being at Jeeb’s home the night of the murder, but claimed he left after the two partook of marijuana and methamphetamine and he became the victim of unwanted sexual advances from Jeebs. He denied hurting him.
By tracking cell phone communications by Jeeb’s and witnesses, detectives were able to describe a scenario where Jeeb’s believed he was bringing Felice over to hang out, possibly for a sexual encounter. Meanwhile, Felice told others he planned to rob Jeeb’s of money and marijuana (he was a medical marijuana patient and had a grow operation).
Felice told witnesses he was trying to make enough money to get back to his native New York after being in Seattle for a short time.
Washington State crime lab scientists were able to link the DNA of blood samples found on Felice’s shirt and the murder weapon to Jeebs.
During his lifetime, Jeebs traveled extensively as an entertainer after becoming a vaudeville street performer in San Francisco in the 1970s, according to the Puget Sound Theatre Organ Society. He was well known for his “Piano Ala Cart” performances, where he rode a piano rigged with bicycle components around the stage.
Felice faces a standard sentencing range of 10.25 to 18.3 years in prison, and prosecutors will recommend 11.6 years, according to court documents.
He will be sentenced on July 20 at 1:45 p.m. in King County Courthouse Room W1060 before Judge John Erlick, according to the King County Prosecutor’s Office.
To read more on the murder case, please click here.
To read more about Jeebs as a performer, please click here.
