Man convicted of hiring killer of 2 in oil-patch dispute

Published 1:48 pm Thursday, February 25, 2016

RICHLAND — A federal jury on Thursday convicted a man accused of hiring a hit man to kill two of his associates in a dispute over business dealings in the North Dakota oil patch.

The jury returned its verdict after four weeks of trial and one day of deliberation in the case of James Henrikson, who was accused of hiring Timothy Suckow to kill Spokane businessman Doug Carlile and Kristopher Clarke, associates tied to North Dakota’s oil-field business, The Spokesman-Review of Spokane reported.

Henrikson’s federal trial was moved from Spokane to Richland because of extensive publicity over the Carlile’s death in 2013. He was shot in his upscale home as his wife hid in a closet and called 911. Clarke was bludgeoned at a North Dakota truck stop; his body hasn’t been found.

Mark Vovos, an attorney for the defendant, said the government’s witnesses against his client — including Suckow — were trying to make him a scapegoat to cover up their own acts in pursuit of wealth.

Suckow and Robert Delao, who claimed to act as a go-between for Henrikson in soliciting several contract killings, wanted pieces of Henrikson’s lucrative oil trucking company for themselves, and Carlile’s killing was nothing more than a home invasion gone wrong, Vovos argued.

Henrikson “never asked or ordered them to kill anyone,” Vovos told the jury.

Both Suckow and Delao have pleaded guilty in the case.

The trial began with prosecutors playing Elberta Carlile’s whispered 911 call. She kept repeating that a man had shot her husband, and said, “If he hears me, he’ll kill me.”

Members of Clarke’s and Carlile’s families attended the trial. A prosecutor’s description of Clarke’s death during opening statements drew tears from Clarke’s grandmother, who stood up and left the courtroom.

Federal prosecutors used witness testimony as well as cellphone and business records in presenting a case that Henrikson was a vindictive, dangerous criminal who threatened to kill Clarke. A series of text messages between Henrikson and Delao showed an evolving conversation in the fall of 2013 that led to Suckow shooting Carlile dead in his South Hill home.

The murder-for-hire counts carry a potential life sentence. Federal prosecutors elected not to pursue the death penalty against Henrikson.

U.S. Attorney Mike Ormsby joined several of his colleagues watching the verdict being read on a live video stream to the U.S. Courthouse in Spokane. Ormsby lauded the work of Spokane police, North Dakota investigators and federal authorities in attaining the verdict.

Ormsby said his office had not yet discussed how long of a sentence they’d seek for Henrikson