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Kyle Michael McCullough, of Kent, Washington, was sentenced to 18 years in prison on February 28, 2025, for the killing of David Aguayo, 26, in Des Moines, Washington. King County Superior Court Judge Matthew Lapin imposed 192 months, or 16 years, for second-degree murder and 2 years for a deadly weapon enhancement, followed by three years of community custody. Prosecutors had recommended 171 months on the murder count.

McCullough was 28 when he was charged with second-degree murder in late June 2022 and 31 when he was sentenced. He was held on $3 million bail. On December 19, 2024, he pleaded guilty as charged to second-degree murder with a deadly weapon enhancement, so there was no trial. In his plea statement, he said he stabbed Aguayo at least two times with a knife whose blade was longer than 3 inches.

In a police interview after his arrest, detectives told McCullough that search warrants had been served at his home and a dumpster, and that video placed him at the apartments. He said he did not know where the body was found and was not involved. According to the charging papers, he told detectives he stabbed Aguayo during a physical fight and acted in self-defense. He said he did not call 911, watched Aguayo die and then cleaned the apartment, but did not move the body out.

Aguayo had been "couch surfing" on and off for a few months with a man at the Des Moines Station Apartments, 2060 Kent Des Moines Road. According to the charging papers, McCullough's girlfriend had been having an affair with Aguayo. She told detectives there was a dispute among the three early on June 17, 2022, after McCullough had just learned they were sleeping together. Prosecutors wrote that McCullough went to where Aguayo was staying and stabbed him multiple times. A photo McCullough took on the girlfriend's phone, showing her and Aguayo lying on the apartment floor together, was sent to Aguayo's phone number with the text "U lucky to be alive."

The man Aguayo was staying with told detectives he woke to yelling and saw Aguayo on his back on the floor, with McCullough bent over him holding a knife. The King County Medical Examiner found more than a dozen stab wounds and at least two gunshot wounds. One stab wound entered the cheek and severed the carotid artery. The roommate said McCullough cleaned the floor and removed the body over the next few hours. Wrapped in black electrical tape, the body was put in a large plastic tote of the kind used to store a Christmas tree and left beside a road in the 13500 block of Beacon Coal Mine Road South, by the Duwamish River near Skyway, in unincorporated King County.

On June 20, 2022, the roommate told Aguayo's sister he had found Aguayo stabbed to death in the apartment and helped dispose of the body. He told her where to find it. She went there, saw a tote wrapped in tarps and called 911 before looking inside. King County Sheriff's deputies contacted Des Moines police at about 7:30 p.m. that evening. Under a search warrant, detectives searched the apartment and a dumpster, finding items that appeared to have blood on them, including a rug in the dumpster.

On June 18, the girlfriend had found a white plastic garbage bag on the floor of their Kent apartment containing a long-sleeved shirt, pajama pants, her camouflage folding knife and black electrical tape. She also showed detectives texts in which McCullough threatened to kill her and her friends. A search of McCullough's apartment turned up bloody socks and other bloodstained items. At about 12:30 p.m. on June 22, 2022, Des Moines police detectives, with the Valley SWAT Team, took McCullough into custody at an apartment complex in Kent.

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Part 2 of 3 of the recording described above.

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Part 3 of 3 of the recording described above.