Former city councilman James McNeal faces murder charge after woman half his age is found dead when she tried to leave their 'toxic' relationship

A woman was allegedly strangled in her bed by a city councilman 38 years her senior after she tried to leave the toxic relationship.

James McNeal, 58, slashed his wrists and had his lawyer call police to arrest him about 24 hours after Liliya Guyvoronsky, 20, was killed.

The former Bothell City Council member was arrested at 4620 A Orchard Street in South Seattle on Tuesday night and charged with murder.

The young woman said in messages sent to friends that McNeal was controlling, got angry when she said no to him, and once told her would 'sex traffic' her.

When police entered the house they found Guyvoronsky naked on her bed, lying on her back with the bedding covering her, according to the arrest report.

She had injury marks on her neck, forehead, and under her jaw and police believe she was strangled.

There was blood on the headboard, pillow and carpet and a photo of McNeal's arrest shared online showed him covered in blood. Police said McNeal had self-inflicted wounds on his wrists.

A handwritten to-do list dated April 29 found in the home included 'do not interact w/James today' as its last item.

Messages to a friend detailed how Guyvoronsky, an 'independent contractor' at Kittens Cabaret, was unhappy with the relationship and wanted to end it.

'It's f**ked up. He got me to have sex. I was celibate for a year and a half and I was not ready. I didn't really want to,' she wrote.

'But he forced a relationship and really pushed me, and honestly, really affected my mental health because I got really depressed and it triggered all my bad emotions from my past.

'I thought I could never be played again but now I'm realizing he played a different game on me that I was not aware of and it really caught me off guard.'

Guyvoronsky told her friend how McNeal, who recently broke up with his wife with whom he has three children, pursued and manipulated her.

'He is really controlling and I can tell he thinks I'm stupid because I am young,' she wrote.

'He thinks he's smarter and he picked me and pursued me very strategically. And he was really smart about it and he really did succeed. Unbelievable.

'He's been grooming me this whole time, trying to reprogram me to think about myself so I don't expect anything.

'Don't ask, be easy, give him what he wants to get away with low effort and bad behavior. I'm not that dumb tho (sic), he will realize this won't work.

'He doesn't like older women for a reason, and I know why. They will challenge him and be harder to control.'

She said she tried to change and be self-aware since she went to rehab and had changed for the better since then to know her worth. 

Guyvoronsky also sent a voice message to a friend, posted online by Jonathan Choe, updating her on how the relationship was going and the toxic dynamic between them.

She said McNeal pursued her so strongly because 'I'm a challenge, I'm not like other girls' and she would ignore him for whole days.

'He can get me gifts I'm not gonna be over here oh so excited. I just act like... he does not faze me, it's not like I've never met a rich guy in my life, I've grown up with my dad,' she said.

'I will say no to him, I am firm with him, and because of that challenge that's why he's still here pursuing me, he's so into me.'

Guyvoronsky explained how McNeal got angry when she refused him and and was lying to her, though didn't explain what about.

'He's trying to put me in a place where he has all the access he wants, for nothing. But I'm not ok with that,' she said.

'He hates the pushback, he always says I challenge him and he gets so frustrated... he gets mad with the fact that he can't get away with some of these things.

'I'm not an idiot, James I know when you're lying to me. You don't like confrontation, I know that, who likes it, and I know you're never going to admit that you did that but I do know what you're doing.'

Guyvoronsky said she was still seeing him because it was an intriguing 'rollercoaster' and described how he 'made up characters'.

'He pretended he was a sex trafficker at one point and he was going to sex traffic me. I had a felling it was bulls**t but I stuck around because I wanted to hear the end of the story,' she said.

'This guy is just crazy. The games he plays is crazy, and it's fun, and I'll play it back to him.'

However, she said she was getting bored with the relationship because he's not giving her what she wants and 'I won't settle for less'. 

'I want a lot in my life, I want to be living like a f**king queen and if he's not going to be providing that? Guess what,' she said.

'He thinks maybe one day I'll just accept it, no, I'm not gonna accept it, I don't care.'

Guyvoronsky said he told her 'you can't get another guy' and that she's 'so lucky he puts up with me'.

'I'm not lucky, guys will put up with me abusing them, so what are you talking about?' she responded.

McNeal's lawyer Jan Olson's call to 911 was included in the police report, in which he told the operator he was outside the house and hadn't gone in.

'I'm an attorney. I am reporting what is a likely homicide... I represent someone inside the residence and am making the call,' he said.

He said he couldn't comment further due to being a lawyer, but that it sounded like there was someone dead inside.

McNeal was taken to Harborview Medical Center where he is in a 'satisfactory' condition but missed his first court date as he was still being treated there.

Guyvoronsky's neighbors said they saw McNeal visit her and bring food inside.

'I knew he had a pickup truck. It was strange to see someone that old hanging out with her,' Alex Grimes told Fox 13.

Another neighbor said she moved there to get away from a stalker. Court records showed she got a protective order against an Amal Kazimi last April.

McNeal was a city councilor for eight years until he was defeated by Mayor Mason Thompson 63 to 37 percent at November's election and left office on December 31.

Before that he worked in construction for 27 years, including running his own business in which he was prosecuted for failing to pay taxes.

McNeal's criminal history was documented in detail by the local Bothell Reporter in 2015 when he ran for election.

He had a felony conviction for eluding police in 1986 when he was 19, which he claimed was the result of years of racial harassment by police.

McNeal explained to the newspaper that it started when he was 16 when cops even ripped his stereo out of his new car at a traffic stop.

'I remember coming home everyday as a prep cook and getting pulled over in the same spot by the same cop, five days in a row,' he said. 

'I started to get frustrated and angry; I didn't think 'because I was black I'm getting pulled over'. Back then 'racial profiling' wasn't a term we used.'

McNeal at the time admitted her drove with 'willful and wanton disregard for person or property' as he fled police who tried to pull him over for an expired license.

'The driver of the motorcycle turned around and looked at the patrol car and then accelerated very rapidly, refusing to stop,' prosecutors told the court at the time.

'The driver then accelerated his motorcycle to 60mph in a 30mph zone… [driving] at speeds of 75 miles per hour in a residential area.'

The judge didn't exonerate McNeal, but agreed his crime was the result of persistent harassment and gave him a lenient sentence.

McNeal also proved in court that police beat him up after they caught him, then falsely claimed he was injured by crashing his motorbike.

'I got off the motorcycle and there were guns pointed at me, yelling for me to put my hands in the air… I put my helmet on the seat of the motorcycle, and as soon as I put the helmet on the motorcycle I flew in the air, and they beat the [expletive] out of me,' he said at the time. 

'They dislocated my shoulder, they bruised my ribs, they broke my glasses, [and] they marred up my face.' 

McNeal also has two misdemeanor convictions for reckless driving and assault, court records show.