New felony charges filed against Port Hadlock man

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A Port Hadlock man recently arrested for having a stolen Subaru is now facing four new felony charges for residential burglary and an additional count of third-degree possession of stolen property.

Robert Andrew Koschnick, 37, made his first appearance on the five felony charges Monday in Jefferson County Superior Court.

Prosecutors allege Koschnick is responsible for a string of home burglaries in February and March on the Coyle and in Port Hadlock.

Deputy Prosecutor Chris Ashcraft cited Koshnick’s extensive criminal history before asking Judge Brandon Mack to set bail at $100,000.

Koschnick has 31 prior convictions, Ashcraft told the judge, and more than 30 warrants had been issued in the past for Koschnick’s arrest.

Mack agreed with the bail request for $100,000.

The additional felony charges follow Koschnick’s recent arrest and arraignment for allegedly being in possession of a 1991 Subaru Legacy station wagon that had been reported stolen in Port Townsend.

A sheriff’s deputy discovered Koschnick trying to spray paint a white Subaru that had been stolen three days earlier with a can of flat-black spray paint.

When a deputy asked him about the car, Koschnick allegedly said he had bought it a couple of days earlier on social media from someone he didn’t know.

“He stated that he did not know the person’s name, and that he bought the vehicle for ‘$300, no questions asked,’ without a title, receipt, or bill of sale,” the deputy wrote in a probable cause report. The Subaru had been reported stolen Feb. 23.

The new charges for residential burglary stem from a break-in at a home Feb. 12 off Coyle Road.

An intruder on the property was captured on cameras that had been left behind by deputies following a burglary at the residence a week earlier, where someone had entered the home and tried to steal a wood stove, but had left it on a hand-truck dolly to be removed later.

The deputy who responded to a report of someone on the property on Feb. 12 could hear someone running away from the home through the woods, and the officer then found the back door of the home had been forced open and was still ajar.

The intruder could not be found during a subsequent search of the area, but photographs taken from other cameras in the area showed a person wearing a camouflage hoodie, and shoes with red soles.

Authorities found a camouflage hoodie that matched the one in the crime-scene photographs after a search warrant was obtained for the home of Koschnick’s girlfriend.

The shoes were later linked to a set of footprints that had been left in the snow from the suspect who had stolen the Subaru in
Port Townsend, and Koschnick was wearing the same pair of shoes at the time of his arrest.

Koschnick is also accused of breaking into a home on Port Hadlock over the weekend.

The owner of the home, who completed the purchase of the residence on Oak Bay Road Saturday, said someone had broken in overnight and had moved a heavy wood stove. A large amount of electrical wiring had been pulled out of the walls after the drywall was destroyed by the thief, and copper plumbing had also been removed from the walls.

A wood stove had also been pulled from its mounted area and moved 20 feet.

Damages to the interior of the home and the door and door frame were estimated to total thousands of dollars.

Shoe prints found in the home were found to have a similar tread pattern as Koschnick’s shoes, according to court documents. 

A large Old Navy coat was also found in the Port Ludlow home that is believed to have been left behind by the intruder; it was taken into evidence, along with hair samples, that will be forwarded to the Washington State Patrol crime lab for DNA analysis.

During a search of the home of Koschnick’s girlfriend, deputies found a bag that contained vehicle registrations that had been stolen from a dump truck and a damaged travel trailer that had been parked on a property in Cape George.

The owner of the trailer was contacted and said the travel trailer had not been damaged since the property was last checked in August. An enclosed trailer was also damaged, and the dump truck was found with the passenger door and glove box still open.

Court documents note that Koschnick is also a suspect in a burglary “almost directly across the street during the same time range,” according to a probable cause report for the incident. 

Arraignment on the new felony charges was set for Friday,
March 25.