PORT ANGELES – A Forks teen is being held on $1 million bail in connection with the murder of a young Forks man.

17-year-old Phillip Z. Cowles appeared via closed-circuit TV in Clallam County court Monday afternoon after being arrested Sunday on suspicion of murder in the death of 19-year-old Tristen Pisani.

KONP is using the name and likeness of the suspect after both were revealed in court Monday. In Washington state, when a 17-year-old is charged with a serious violent offense, adult criminal court has jurisdiction. The Prosecutor’s Office has told us that “Charges are likely to be filed on Wednesday in adult court”.

Chief Criminal Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Michele Devlin told Judge Lauren Erickson Monday that her office plans to charge Cowles with Premeditated Murder in the First Degree.

The probable cause statement filed by the Sheriff’s Office quotes Cowles as repeatedly confessing to the murder in an ambulance, at the hospital and later to deputies “post-miranda”.

The statement’s narrative has Cowles and a male friend showing up at a party Saturday night/Sunday morning at the victim’s house. Cowles claimed that Pisani was bullying him at the party, saying he had been doing so for some time. Following an argument between the two, a friend drove Cowles home in the early morning hours.

Papers say Cowles told authorities that Pisani continued to send antagonizing texts. He says he took a handgun from his mother’s bedroom and walked 1.7 miles back to Pisani’s house. He says he entered the victim’s bedroom where Pisani was sitting on a bed between two friends and shot him.

One of the men took the gun from Cowles and beat him severely at gunpoint, holding him until law enforcement arrived.

Cowles will appear in court on Wednesday at 1:00 where he will likely face formal charges.

Staff photo: Cowles appears on CCTV with court-appointed attorney Suzanne Hayden.