Angry exchange detailed to jury

Published 9:00 pm Thursday, May 13, 2004

EVERETT – Jeff Barth admits he’s no angel.

He’s conversant on cocaine, likes to keep handguns within reach and confesses to a thrill when kicking in a door to commit a burglary or robbery.

Smirking and all but swaggering in the witness box Thursday, Barth, 22, seemed to revel in trying to convince a Snohomish County jury that he is a callous thug.

But he showed pure contempt for John Phillip Anderson, 22, the Everett man charged with aggravated murder in connection with the September 2002 killing of Rachel Burkheimer.

Barth glowered at Anderson as he recounted watching the defendant attack Burkheimer, 18, at a duplex that was the favorite gathering place of an Everett-based gang. He told jurors Anderson kept Burkheimer tied up for hours in a garage and later admitted shooting her to death in the Cascade Mountain foothills.

Barth’s anger seemed more directed at Anderson’s actions toward him than anything the defendant is accused of doing to Burkheimer.

Barth, who has pleaded guilty to participating in Burkheimer’s kidnapping, said he was just minding his own business in the duplex, smoking dope and playing video games, when Anderson stormed inside and began punching him and another gang member.

Barth said he reached for the long-barreled revolver he usually carried in his waistband and told Anderson he was “about to get got.” He demanded that they step outside for a fistfight.

Instead, Anderson grabbed his own pistol, threatened Barth and then began beating Burkheimer, who was visiting the duplex and was trying to leave.

Barth did nothing to stop the attack. Instead, he said he walked out in disgust.

“How angry were you?” deputy prosecutor Michael Downes asked.

“I was angry enough to shoot him,” Barth said.

Barth never fired his weapon, even though he told jurors that he came back to the house, found Anderson in the garage tormenting Burkheimer, and again held him at gunpoint.

Barth said he tried to goad Anderson into fighting. He called the man names, and admitted making statements that could be interpreted as suggesting Barth and other gang members should force sex on the captive Burkheimer, who was Anderson’s ex-girlfriend.

Barth insisted he was just trying to anger Anderson.

But public defender Susan Gaer grilled him about testimony from others who claim Barth bragged about pistol-whipping Burkheimer, and that he had poked her with his handgun, simulating sex.

Under police questioning, Barth earlier acknowledged that it was possible his gun accidentally came into contact with Burkheimer as she lay bound on the garage floor. On Thursday, he said he thought that was unlikely, because he held the firearm at waist level.

Gaer had Barth demonstrate how he held the gun using a foot-long ruler. No matter how he waved around the simulated weapon, it was nowhere near the floor.

Gaer asked Barth to explain how it could be possible that he bumped Burkheimer with a handgun. He couldn’t.

“I mean, I’m not an expert. I didn’t do a ruler test,” Barth said.

Throughout the day, Barth sat in the witness box and Anderson at the defense table, repeatedly trading hard stares.

During one break, with jurors were out of the room, the eye contact was sustained enough that corrections officers took action. One took up a position so Barth and Anderson couldn’t see each other. The practice was repeated the rest of the day.

Reporter Scott North: 425-339-3431 or north@heraldnet.com.