SPOKANE, Wash. – Spokane Police arrested 21-year-old Aaron Holder, the suspect in the 2021 murder of Justin Combs outside of the downtown Spokane Greyhound bus station.
Combs was sleeping outside the bus station and on June 7, 2021, he was found beaten to death with a basalt rock.
Combs’ killer beat him in the head three times with the rock, according to an affidavit obtained by NonStop Local.
Holder is charged with Assault in the First Degree and Murder in the Second Degree.
Police had been looking for a killer for nearly three years.
In 2021, police arrested Samuel Tesch-Villa.
He was ultimately proven innocent of the crime, was released and all charges were dropped.
In early January, a Spokane Police officer, who knew Tesch-Villa, pulled him in on a misdemeanor warrant.
During that conversation, court documents say Tesch-Villa “told him he knew who did the homicide, because the guy who did it apologized to him for Tesch-Villa’s time spent in jail.”
That individual, identified by Tesch-Villa, was Aaron Holder.
Police quickly found and detained Holder.
Holder was shown surveillance video of the vicious 2021 attack.
The court documents say he began to cry, that he did not know Combs and he could not provide an explanation for the attack.
During his interview with detectives, according to the court documents, Holder asked what kind of punishment he could be facing.
A detective found there was probable cause to arrest him and Holder was booked into the Spokane County Jail on a $1 million bond.
District Court Judge Jennifer Fassbender presided over his first appearance Thursday.
There was no court date issued after his first appearance in District Court.
Holder’s future court dates will be in Superior Court.
