Jon Kunkel, a controversial Islander well-known on Vashon for his two boarding-house-like homes and varied business ventures, has been charged with first-degree murder for the August shooting of Ron Childers.

Kunkel, 23, who’s been on and off the Island since the Aug. 19 shooting of his tenant and one-time business partner, was apprehended at his Ellisport area home last Thursday afternoon — nearly four months after the incident occurred. According to both the King County Sheriff’s Department and neighbors whose homes were used as stakeout posts, the arrest unfolded without incident.

Kunkel is to be arraigned today, where he is expected to plead not guilty. Should he be convicted of the crime, he would face 25 to 31 years behind bars. He is being held on $2 million bail.

His lawyer, James White of Vashon, declined to comment on the charge except to say that he was “shocked.”

Ron Childers, who was shot three times with a 12-gauge shotgun, was a handyman and landscaper who had been married one week short of a year when he was killed in Kunkel’s bedroom, where he and Kunkel were having a conversation about money Childers allegedly owed Kunkel. His widow, Diana Childers, said she’s thrilled by the news of Kunkel’s arrest.

“I am ecstatic. I want to get up on the mountaintops and scream,” she said. “It doesn’t bring my husband back. But it’s a relief that he didn’t get away with it, like he thought he would.”

The arrest marks the second time Kunkel has been taken into custody for Childers’ death. He was apprehended at his home on the night of the killing, after he admitted to officers he shot Childers but said he did so in self-defense.

He was released two days later and returned to his Vashon home. Authorities said at the time that they were continuing the investigation but weren’t ready to charge him; under state law, a suspect cannot be held for more than 72 hours without being charged for a crime.

That arrest-then-release episode, however, put several of his former tenants into a tailspin, some of whom said they were afraid that Kunkel might turn on them for their cooperation with authorities. Now that he’s again behind bars, some of them said they’re breathing easier.

Kelly Chess, a tenant who was eating dinner when the shooting occurred and rushed into the room to search for Childers’ pulse, said it was extremely hard for him when Kunkel returned to Vashon.

“It was almost a punch in the stomach,” he said. “I was honestly very scared.”

Now, he said, “I feel like a weight was lifted off of my shoulders. A lot of mental anguish just lifted when I heard he was arrested.”

The murder marks the first one in nearly four years on Vashon. According to court documents, Kunkel planned to kill Childers because of a long-simmering dispute over money that he claimed Childers owed him.

Kunkel owns two houses — one on the 20300 block of 87th Avenue S.W. near the Ellisport neighborhood and the other on 87th Place W. in the Fir Ridge neighborhood, both of which house multiple adult tenants. Until his arrest, Kunkel lived in the house near Ellisport.

Childers moved into Kunkel’s Fir Ridge home in February where, according to court documents, he quickly fell behind on rent.

Court documents paint a picture of a landlord desperate to evict a tenant. Childers agreed to work off his rent by painting and building a fence around one of Kunkel’s houses, work he failed to do, the documents say. Meanwhile, Kunkel agreed to sell him a van for $3,800 — again with Childers working for Kunkel in lieu of payment. And again, documents say, Childers failed to follow through.

Finally, the documents say, Kunkel agreed to give Childers $1,000 so that he could cover rent somewhere else, money he took while remaining in Kunkel’s Fir Ridge home.

Kunkel’s anger over Childers’ behavior was mounting, court documents suggest, and he told one of the tenants, Dave McCoy, that he wanted to get Childers angry enough that he could kill him in self-defense. In July, he and McCoy drove to an off-Island gun shop where they shopped for guns, documents say.

On Aug. 19, Childers came to Kunkel’s home and the two sat down in Kunkel’s bedroom to discuss the debt. Childers was unarmed, documents say, while Kunkel’s loaded 12-gauge shotgun was within arm’s reach, concealed behind a piano. Around 7:15 p.m., tenants said they heard three shots. Kunkel emerged from the bedroom saying that Childers had come at him with a sword and that he shot him in self-defense — an account that was not supported by evidence at the scene, court documents say.

The prosecutor’s office would not say why it took nearly four months to piece together enough evidence to charge Kunkel with first-degree murder.

“There was an ongoing investigation,” said Dan Donohoe, a spokesperson for the prosecutor’s office. “More time was needed for the investigation to continue.”

Kunkel came to Vashon from Oklahoma a few years ago, initially working at Vashon Community Care Center as an aide, according to several employees. He worked there a couple of years.

He then opened a landscaping business he called Green Goat Lawnmowing Service, purchased the two houses and ultimately brought his mother to Vashon.

Shortly before Childers’ death, Kunkel, who often said he hoped to make $1 million by the time he turned 25, bought John Dough’s Pizza from Doug Sudduth, planning to run it as JJ’s Pizza with his mother, Julia Brock. On Monday, Sudduth said, he went to court and got the business back from Kunkel and Brock for failure on their part to make payments.

Both of his houses, meanwhile, have been the source of community concern. At his Ellisport home, the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency is getting ready to fine him for three burning violations, each of which carries a fine up to $14,000.

And in Fir Ridge, neighbors have been concerned for some time about the comings and goings at Kunkel’s home, where surveillence cameras and mercury vapor lights have been installed in recent weeks.

“Everybody’s frightened,” said Bob Smith, a retired probation officer who lives next door. “We finally got together as a neighborhood three weeks ago.”