Trial starts for accused killer at troubled Richland apartments

A chaotic fight in a troubled Richland apartment complex ended with gunshots and a 20-year-old man dying.

Two years later, a jury is being asked to decide if a one-time convicted murderer, Antoine R. “Peanut” Surge, 45, fired the shot that killed Edree D. Thompson at the Columbia Park Apartments. .

A jury listened to two versions of what happened on May 19, 2023, during Friday afternoon’s opening statements in Surge’s second-degree murder trial in Benton County Superior Court.

Thompson was shot after going to the complex with Melissa Klug to pick up another woman, Christina Cato about 9 p.m. When they arrived, a crowd had already gathered outside of an apartment.

Prosecutors described a chaotic scene that was documented by a cellphone video shown to the jurors. It was taken from some distance from the shooting.

Deputy Prosecutor Brendan Siefken said the video is the linchpin of their prosecution and promised Judge Bronson Brown that there would be pictures that have more information that would be presented to the jury.

He said people would testify that one person spotted Surge with a gun, and pushed it down before Surge allegedly fired the first shot. Then Surge allegedly fired the second shot.

“You’ll notice there was approximately four seconds between the first shot and the second shot. ... And the victim was running away,” Siefken said. “This was a case of senseless gun violence.”

But Defense Attorney Karla Kane said police picked a suspect and then “laser focused” on evidence that supported their point of view. They ignored conflicting facts that she expected would come up in the trial.

“Chaos, conflicting testimony, tunnel vision are all going to lead to unanswered questions that will absolutely result in a verdict of not guilty,” she said.

She said the fight at the Columbia Park Apartments involved dozens of people with several of them armed. She explained that Thompson was ready for a fight, and people heard that Klug was bringing a gun with her.

If Surge is convicted of the murder, it would be his third “strike,” according to court records.

Washington state’s “three strikes law” generally mandates a life sentence for anyone who has committed three violent felonies.

His first came after an August 2001 shooting where he killed his girlfriend’s estranged husband in a fight at her Seattle home.

He pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in 2002, and was sentenced to 16 years. He was released in 2019.

He got in trouble with the law again in 2020, and was convicted of second-degree assault.

Richland confrontation

On May 19, Thompson went to the apartment complex on Jadwin Avenue about 9 p.m. with Melissa Klug to help Klug’s sister, Cato, got her kids from their father’s home, according to court documents.

A protection order was in place to keep the children’s parents from contacting each other.

When Thompson and Klug arrived, there was a group outside the apartment building. When the two approached the group, an argument erupted, according to court documents.

Witness accounts of the details of what Thompson said to the group differ. One person said he yelled “18th Street,” another said she heard Thompson yell to Klug to “pass it over,” according to court documents.

One person said Surge, who also goes by the name “Peanut,” came up behind Thompson with a gun in his hand. The gun was knocked out of his hand and went off when it hit the ground.

Surge picked up the gun and started chasing Thompson, said the witness.

Klug said the gunman then turned the pistol toward her. She got a gun from her car to protect herself and tried to shoot the suspect, but the gun didn’t fire, according to court documents.

This story was originally published June 2, 2025 at 5:00 AM.