Killer’s gamble adds 12 years

A young man who strangled the life out of mail-order bride Anastasia King told a judge Wednesday that he just wanted to do less time than the 20 years in prison he got when he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder.

Instead, Daniel Kristopher Larson will serve 32 years behind bars.

A jury on Jan. 30 quickly convicted Larson, 26, of first-degree murder for the same crime.

Prosecutors were allowed to bring Larson back to court for the Mountlake Terrace woman’s death because he violated terms of the 2002 plea agreement. He broke a promise not to challenge his conviction and sentence.

Snohomish County Superior Court Judge Thomas Wynne noted that the victim came to the United States from her native Kyrgyzstan to marry Indle King Jr. of Mountlake Terrace. She met her husband through an international marriage broker.

Larson, a registered sex offender, rented a room from Indle King Jr.

The marriage fell apart and Indle King Jr. enlisted Larson to help him kill his wife in September 2000. The two then disposed of her body in a shallow grave on the Tulalip Indian Reservation.

Anastasia King, 20, was a missing person until Larson told investigators where the body was buried in late 2000. After he pleaded guilty, he testified against Indle King Jr., who was also convicted and got a 29-year sentence.

Anastasia King’s mother, Alla Solovieva, told the judge Wednesday through a Russian-speaking interpreter that Larson’s sentence should give him enough time to contemplate his actions and repent.

“What will be important is for him to seek forgiveness,” Solovieva told Wynne. Referring to friends, the prosecutor’s staff and the court, she also said: “I can only continue to live because God gave me wonderful people.”

Wynne looked at photographs of Anastasia King and listened to a 1997 recording of her playing a jazz improvisation on the piano during a recital in her native Kyrgyzstan.

Deputy prosecutor Janice Albert asked the judge for the maximum term for Larson, about 21/2 years more than the 32 years he received. Karen Halverson, an Everett defense attorney, said that Larson should get the minimum term – about 26 years.

Halverson said that Larson certainly should not receive more prison time than Indle King Jr.

She also told the judge that while Anastasia King was beautiful, cherished and loved, Larson has led a “troubled” life and needs psychiatric help.

Larson wrote a letter to Wynne asking the judge to send him to Western State Hospital for mental treatment. Wynne told him he couldn’t do that under the law.

Larson’s attorney conceded his client brought prison time on himself through his own actions.

During the trial last month, “you watched the train wreck unfold,” Halverson told the judge.

A jury took less than an hour to convict Larson after hearing him repeatedly confess to the crime. The confessions were memorialized on audio tapes, video recordings and court transcripts.

“I’m sorry,” Larson told the judge. “I would like you to take that into consideration.”

Albert said that’s not enough.

“It’s not about Daniel Larson right now,” she told Wynne. “It’s about what Daniel Larson did and the punishment he should receive.”

Reporter Jim Haley: 425-339-3447 or haley@heraldnet.com.