Woman accused of role in Wash. trooper's killing

By Gene Johnson

Associated Press

Published: Friday, Feb. 24 2012 11:25 a.m. MST

Members of the media photograph a vehicle being towed away from a shooting suspects home in Port Orchard, Wash. on Thursday, Feb. 23, 2012. The trooper, a 16-year veteran of the Washington State Patrol, had stopped a pickup truck around 1 a.m. on Highway 16 about 20 miles west of Seattle across Puget Sound. He radioed the location and license plate number, said Trooper Russ Winger.

Kitsap Sun, Larry Steagall, Associated Press

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Summary

The woman accused of helping a man who shot and killed a Washington state trooper during a traffic stop is 32-year-old Jessi Leigh Foster.

PORT ORCHARD, Wash. — The woman accused of helping a man who shot and killed a Washington state trooper during a traffic stop is 32-year-old Jessi Leigh Foster.

Jail records show that Foster was booked into the Kitsap County jail Thursday afternoon for investigation of rendering criminal assistance. Her bail was set at $500,000.

Investigators have not said how she may have helped the 28-year-old killer, Joshua Blake. Blake shot trooper Tony Radulescu during a traffic stop, then killed himself at a home on a dirt road as a SWAT team moved in.

Documents show that Foster and Blake had tussled in court over custody of their young child in 2010. Blake accused her of having a severe drinking problem and being unstable, while a friend of Foster wrote that Blake was never around for the child because he'd been in prison.

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