FILE - A screenshot shows Marc Fogle from Clark County Deputy Bryson Layton’s body camera footage on May 7, 2025. Layton fatally stabbed Fogle 17 times in the back. Prosecutors in Clark County stated the deputy will not face criminal charges.
Clark County Sheriff's Office
Prosecutors in Clark County said Monday that a deputy who stabbed a suspect to death in May 2025 won’t face criminal charges.
The decision, which came three weeks after Marc Fogle’s family filed a $27 million wrongful death tort claim, could play an important role in whether the county is ultimately held liable for the killing.
Fogle was arrested after he crashed his car and was suspected of drunk driving. He was taken to an exam room by Clark County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Bryson Layton and, during an altercation, was stabbed 17 times in the back. The stabbing occurred barely an hour after Fogle’s arrest.
Layton was justified, Clark County prosecutors said, because Fogle was suicidal during his arrest and seemed to initiate the fatal confrontation by grabbing Layton and reaching for the deputy’s holstered gun.
“Layton was in fear for his life,” wrote Chief Criminal Deputy Anna Klein in a 12-page document released Monday.
Clark County Sheriff John Horch struck a conciliatory tone in a prepared statement, calling Fogle’s death a “significant loss for his family and friends” but that he supported Layton.
“I stand behind Deputy Layton and I believe it is important to say that publicly,” Horch wrote.
Layton returned to work as a full-time deputy on patrol for the Clark County Sheriff’s Office on July 6, sheriff’s office officials said.
Representatives for Fogle’s family called his killing unjustified, but noted that charging crimes uses a higher standard than civil court.
“Criminal cases require criminal intent,” attorney Mark Lindquist wrote. “Civil cases only require a showing of negligence.”
Their tort claim largely portrayed Fogle, a commercial truck driver, as clearly in distress about his drunk driving arrest and that Layton failed to de-escalate the situation and ignored the 54-year-old’s medical needs.
The May 7, 2025 killing was investigated by the Washington state Office of Independent Investigation, an agency that dispatches investigators to deadly force cases in the state. They conducted interviews and reviewed camera footage.
Investigators wrote that Layton’s bar tab indicated he had bought a dozen beers between 3:30 p.m. and 10:45 p.m. He was then found to have crashed his car around 10:59 p.m.
People who called 911 reported hearing Fogle say that his life “is over” after the crash.
Layton, one of two deputies who responded, drove Fogle to a facility operated by Washington State Patrol near Interstate 5. He took Fogle into a “breath-test” room.
Layton removed Fogle’s handcuffs as he began processing his arrest for driving under the influence. Meanwhile, Fogle continued to make distressed statements, like that he was a “dead man.”
At one point, after Layton pressed Fogle on if he planned to kill himself, Fogle commented that they were the only two people in the room.
“You know what’s crazy?” Fogle said, according to state investigative records. “It’s just you and me in this … room.”
Fogle is seen in an altercation with Clark County Deputy Bryson Layton on May 7, 2025, captured by the deputy’s body camera footage.
Clark County Sheriff's Office
Layton then attempted to re-handcuff Fogle. The struggle ensued. State investigators wrote that Layton told Fogle that he would shoot him, prompting Fogle to reply: “Yeah, yeah, that is what I want.”
Fogle also said, “I’m not looking to shoot you. I want you to shoot me.”
Footage from Layton’s body-worn camera ends abruptly as the two fall to the ground, around 11:58 p.m. When it reactivated around 12:00 a.m., Fogle is seen facedown in handcuffs and “appears to be injured,” state investigators wrote.
Layton’s dagger has a blade longer than three inches. He told investigators that his Taser wasn’t a viable option because it didn’t come equipped with a close-range stun function.
Perhaps the two biggest points of disagreement going forward in the case are whether Layton or Fogle turned off the camera, and why Layton eschewed the Taser.
In their Sept. 17 tort claim, the Fogle family’s attorneys accuse Layton of deactivating the camera. They say Fogle wouldn’t know how to deactivate the camera and that his hands were “not in position” to shut it off.
But Klein, the chief criminal deputy, wrote that Fogle had “pinned” Layton to the ground at the time the camera shut off. Its lens was obscured by Fogle’s sweatshirt. The shutdown was caused by “the pressure of Mr. Fogle on the (camera),” Klein wrote.
Regarding the Taser, attorneys for the Fogle family wrote that Layton lied to state investigators and that it was, in fact, capable of using its close-range stun functions.
Klein wrote that Layton “did not feel the Taser he carried would have been effective.”
“Deputy Layton’s goal in stabbing Mr. Fogle was to get him to stop going for his gun and to then secure him,” Klein wrote.
