By Scott North
Herald Writer
A Mountlake Terrace man accused of murdering his mail-order bride was hit with a new charge Monday for allegedly trying to hire another inmate to silence a witness against him.
Indle Gifford King Jr., 40, on Dec. 27 allegedly offered $5,000 to an inmate with purported ties to an outlaw motorcycle organization. King allegedly wanted the man to assault a former inmate to ensure he wouldn’t testify at King’s first-degree murder trial, said Jim Townsend, Snohomish County’s chief criminal deputy prosecutor.
The former inmate is set to testify that while jailed with King earlier in the year, King sought his advice about the believability of various stories about what had happened to his wife, Townsend alleged.
Prosecutors charged King on Monday with criminal solicitation. That’s in addition to the murder charge, plus a witness tampering charge for allegedly trying to get another key witness to change his testimony.
King is scheduled to go on trial Jan. 7, accused of the September 2000 death of his wife, Anastasia King, 20, a University of Washington student who disappeared after returning from a visit to her parents’ home in Kyrgyzstan, in the former Soviet Union. Her body was found two months later in a shallow grave near Marysville.
King’s lawyers, David Allen and Cassandra Stamm of Seattle, said they are unimpressed with the new allegation and are ready for trial.
"There are a lot of jailhouse snitches around looking to get a deal," Allen said.
Both of the new figures in the King case have lengthy criminal records.
William Backus Jr., 32, the man who alleges King tried to hire him, was in the Skagit County Jail on a new charge when interviewed by police. Backus told detectives he believed King thought he was a "bad ass" because his friends include bikers, truckers and "roughnecks." Backus said he was convinced King wanted him to kill the witness, but he turned him down flat, according to court papers.
"I told these detectives I really had no desire to get involved in this case, that it was none of my business. And frankly, I was madder than hell for King putting me in it," he said in a statement that was filed in court Monday.
The new charge is just the latest twist in an already unusual case.
Prosecutors allege that King recruited his former housemate, convicted sex offender Daniel K. Larson, 21, to assist him in murdering his wife. Larson later led police to the slain woman’s grave, and claimed the 270-pound Indle King not only ordered the killing, but held down his wife as she fought for her life.
King has flatly denied any involvement, but he was later charged with murder and witness tampering after prosecutors found evidence he had allegedly recruited a childhood friend to pressure Larson into changing his story.
Larson in October pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and promised to testify against King in exchange for a prison sentence as low as 14 years.
But the value of Larson’s testimony has always been in doubt. He was treated for mental illness as a youth and has convictions for child molestation, failing to register as sex offender and attempting to force sex on a teenager who had immigrated here from the former Soviet Union.
Larson’s credibility eroded further when defense attorneys in late December revealed a jailhouse letter from Larson, claiming he had acted alone in killing Anastasia King, and that the murder was ordered by God.
The letter was sent to Christopher Turgeon, 38, the former leader of a violent sect called the Gatekeepers, which was formerly based in Snohomish County. Turgeon and another member of the group are now serving lengthy sentences for a string of robberies in California and the murder of a Mountlake Terrace man who had been a former cult member.
You can call Herald Writer Scott North at 425-339-3431 or send e-mail to
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