Plea deal bolsters prosecution
Published 9:00 pm Monday, February 9, 2004
An Everett man who was to go on trial this week in the Rachel Burkheimer murder case today pleaded guilty to kidnapping in exchange for a promise to testify against co-defendants.
Jeffrey Scott Barth, 23, has provided key information about the September 2002 slaying of Burkheimer, 18, of Marysville, attorneys said.
Deputy prosecutor Michael Downes this morning said that based on what Barth has told him, he now hopes to seek an aggravated murder charge against Yusef “Kevin” Jihad, 33.
Legal argument on that maneuver was under way this morning before Snohomish County Superior Court Judge James Allendoerfer.
Barth and Jihad had been scheduled this week to go on trial together on charges of first-degree murder, conspiracy and kidnapping.
Barth’s plea occurred about one hour before jury selection had been scheduled to start for the pair.
If convicted as charged, Barth would have faced a minimum 25 years behind bars. Prosecutors abandoned the murder and conspiracy counts against Barth. Under today’s plea, his standard punishment would range from 117 months to 135 months behind bars.
When Allendoerfer asked Barth if he knew how long 117 months is in years, the defendant answered correctly: just three months shy of a decade.
“Right,” the judge said. “You’ve done the math.”
Barth’s attorney, John Henry Browne of Seattle, told the judge that Barth reached the decision to plead guilty after meeting over the last four days with prosecutors, detectives and his family.
Prosecutors allege Burkheimer was lured to an Everett duplex where she was bound and beaten for up to three hours. She was then stuffed into a bag and driven to the Cascade Mountain foothills near Gold Bar, where she was fatally shot.
Barth’s plea makes him the fifth of eight defendants in the Burkheimer case to plead guilty and agree to testify against the others. His cooperation is a big break with his past behavior in the case, which included a courtroom appearance last year where he made an obscene gesture at the judge.
Besides Jihad, the remaining defendants include John Anderson, 21, and John Whitaker, 23, both of Everett and both charged with aggravated murder. If convicted as charged, Anderson and Whitaker both face life in prison without possibility of release.
