By Jim Haley
Herald Writer
EVERETT — Indle Gifford King Jr. lured his wife into the garage of their Mountlake Terrace home on the pretext of giving her money for college tuition, a witness in the mail-order bride murder trial testified Thursday.
Then King asked her for a kiss.
When she approached, the 270-pound King engaged her in a tight bear hug, signaling the time for a companion to place a necktie around her neck, said Daniel K. Larson, a 21-year-old registered sex offender who rented a room in the King household in September 2000.
In chilling tones, Larson explained to a jury how he helped to strangle Anastasia King, who came to the United States from the former Soviet Union 2½ years earlier to marry Indle King. He also recounted how he and King disposed of her body, first by wrapping it in a blanket used by the family dog, driving it to a remote area near Marysville and digging a grave.
Once King got his wife in the bear hug, Larson placed a multicolored necktie around her neck, Larson told the jury.
"She screamed and Indle told me to open the door, and he carried her inside the house," Larson testified under questioning by chief criminal deputy prosecutor Jim Townsend.
Larson described the sound she made as "just a scream, in panic." She was forced to the floor, the tie still dangling from her neck, and Indle King held her down.
"He told me to tighten the tie," Larson said.
Struggling for her life, Anastasia King managed to tell her husband that she had told someone King planned to kill her. He wanted to know who, and told Larson to loosen the tie. When she refused to identify the person, "He told me to tighten the necktie again," Larson said. "I did as I was told. I twisted the necktie and kept on twisting it."
Afterward, "I couldn’t stand to look at her," Larson added. "I was traumatized, panicked, shocked. I was like a zombie, doing what I was told."
Larson resumes his testimony today, and will probably undergo cross-examination by defense lawyers.
The prosecution asserts that Larson was dominated by Indle King and did what the older man told him to do. Also, prosecutors maintain that Larson was afraid of losing a place to live and might not be able to find another because he was a registered sex offender.
He already has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in Anastasia King’s death, and the state will recommend that he spend between 14 and 23 years in prison.
The state has charged Indle King with first-degree murder and alleges that Anastasia King was killed partly out of jealousy because Indle King believed she had been seeing other men. He also was obsessed, prosecutors say, with the fact that a previous mail-order bride divorced him and took much of his money and other possessions.
Defense lawyer David Allen has pointed a finger squarely at Larson, saying he alone killed Anastasia King. Indle King may have told a series of lies to police and others because he was embarrassed that his wife had left him, the defense contends.
Anastasia King met her fate the afternoon she and her husband returned from visiting her parents in Kyrgyzstan. They met through a foreign matchmaking organization, and she was attempting to qualify for permanent residency in this country when she was killed.
In great detail, Larson told the jury how the two drove in the King car to the Marysville area, dug a shallow grave in an illegal dumping area and placed Anastasia King’s body in it. Indle King became angry because Larson had not filled the gas tank, and they had to stop at a convenience store near their home to fill up, with the body in the back seat covered by the blanket.
Indle King also became fidgety in stop-and-go traffic on I-5 heading north when a Washington State Patrol trooper drove alongside for an extended period.
At the grave site, Larson told jurors how they dumped the body into the hole, and Indle King "stood on her back to try and pack her down in the dirt," Larson testified.
They stripped her of her clothes, cut her hair and disposed of them and their own shoes in a black plastic garbage bag that was tossed into a dumpster, he said. They also took her diamond wedding ring and earrings.
Larson admitted he also told a series of lies. He was in the Snohomish County Jail on an indecent liberties charge when police confronted him and he led officers to the body.
He said he gradually started telling the whole truth, even though he admitted he at first attempted to deny or minimize his involvement in the killing.
You can call Herald Writer Jim Haley at 425-339-3447
or send e-mail to haley@heraldnet.com.
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