Chance to save woman skipped

Published 9:00 pm Tuesday, March 23, 2004

Maurice Carlos Rivas told a jury Tuesday that he was a close friend of Rachel Burkheimer.

Still, he participated in her abduction on Sept. 23, 2002, did nothing to save her life, and even helped dig her grave.

Then Rivas turned away as John Phillip Anderson, 22, shot the 18-year-old woman repeatedly until the gun jammed, he told the court.

He turned and saw Anderson fussing with the gun, then fire point-blank into the hole where Burkheimer spent her final seconds alive.

That’s the chilling story Rivas, 19, of Lynnwood told Snohomish County Superior Court jurors in the aggravated murder trial of Yusef "Kevin" Jihad, 34.

Rivas is one of five participants in the abduction and shooting death scheduled to testify against Jihad, Anderson and John Alan Whitaker, 23, all of Everett.

All three face aggravated murder charges, which could lead to life in prison without possibility of release.

Rivas, who was a Lynnwood High School student at the time, pleaded guilty to murder and agreed to cooperate with authorities. He is expected to serve about 26 years in prison.

He recounted being forced to leave the south Everett duplex where the young Marysville woman was attacked, beaten and bound with duct tape and ropes.

He discussed a growing distrust of her by Anderson and Jihad after they suspected that she had set them up by inviting them to a party in a motel where they believed gang rivals were.

Rivas told the jury Burkheimer was stuffed into a duffel bag, put in the back of a red Jeep Cherokee and driven around while those involved in the plot decided what to do with her.

At one point, the Jeep stopped near a wooded trail in the Mill Creek area. She was taken, still in the bag, a few yards down the path and left alone with Rivas while others returned to the duplex for shovels and a pick.

During those moments, Rivas partly unzipped the duffel bag and had a conversation with Burkheimer.

"She just asked like what was going to happen to her," Rivas said in response to a question by deputy prosecutor Michael Downes.

Rivas added that she seemed to know she was about to die and asked that they not drown her.

"She said to shoot her and make it quick," Rivas testified. "I said, ‘I don’t think it will go to that extent.’"

Downes noted that Rivas was armed with a pistol, he was alone with her and there were homes nearby where he could have sought help. Why didn’t he knock on a door? Downes asked.

"I was scared of what could happen," Rivas said.

Later, Jihad’s defense attorney, Mickey Krom, asked why Rivas didn’t save Rachel.

"I just froze," he said.

"You saved yourself," Krom shot back, implying that he was prone to doing things to help himself and leaving friends like Burkheimer and Jihad in the lurch.

The state is trying to prove that Jihad was behind the plans to kill Burkheimer because she was associating with rival gang members.

There’s been testimony that Jihad, Anderson and several other members of what Rivas termed a "select group of people" had been involved in robberies and drug sales to make money.

Krom has pointed a finger at Anderson, Burkheimer’s ex-boyfriend, accusing him of being the prime mover, jealous that the Marysville woman had been dating other men. He maintains that Jihad had nothing to do with the abduction and murder.

Rivas said the original plan was to abduct Burkheimer at the Lynnwood home of a teenager involved with the group. The adult occupant returned unexpectedly, thwarting that scheme.

In telephone conversations with Rivas and others, Anderson gave the orders to "snatch her up, even with a pistol to her head," Rivas testified. In the background, however, Rivas heard Jihad agreeing to bring her to the Everett duplex.

Reporter Jim Haley: 425-339-3447 or haley@heraldnet.com.