Confession at heart of Rafay trial

SEATTLE — Atif Rafay and Sebastian Burns thought they could get away with murder and the Rafay family’s money when they bludgeoned Rafay’s parents and his disabled sister, a King County deputy prosecutor told jurors at the young men’s murder trial Monday.

They had "absolutely no empathy" for the victims, who were beaten to death in their Bellevue home nine years ago, Deputy Prosecutor Roger Davidheiser said in his opening statement.

Prosecutors showed jurors a videotape secretly recorded by police in Canada, in which Rafay and Burns admitted killing the Rafay family.

But attorney Song Richardson, representing Burns, told jurors the confession was false — elicited by Royal Canadian Mounted Police undercover officers who posed so effectively as gangsters that they thoroughly frightened Burns, then still in his teens.

Burns, now 28, and Rafay, 27, are each charged with three counts of aggravated first-degree murder, which is punishable in Washington by death or life in prison without parole. As part of the agreement to extradite the two best friends from Canada, prosecutors agreed not to seek the death penalty.

On Tuesday, attorneys for Rafay planned to present their opening statement. King County Superior Court Judge Charles Mertel will then recess the trial until Monday.

Burns believed that if he crossed the undercover officer he knew as "Big Al," "’I would wake up one day with a bullet in my head,’ "Richardson said, quoting from transcripts of tapes recorded by Canadian authorities.

The RCMP planted bugs in the defendants’ home and car — illegal in the United States but legal in Canada and thus allowed as evidence — and in hotel rooms where they met the young men.

The confession was videotaped in a Vancouver hotel room July 18-19, 1995. It was Burns’ fifth encounter with the men after a "chance meeting" at a barber shop.

By then, Richardson said, the undercover officer — and two supporting players — had convinced Burns he was dealing with dangerous thugs who only trusted him and Rafay because they were perceived as killers.

The undercover officers also showed Burns a false memo from Bellevue police, leading him to believe evidence was being fabricated against him and Rafay, Richardson said.

If the two friends were arrested, Burns believed, they’d pose a threat to "Big Al," putting their lives at risk. If they confessed to the slayings, Richardson said, the thugs promised to destroy the evidence against them.

To the frightened Burns, Richardson said, confessing a crime he did not commit looked like the only out.

Police confirmed the defendants were seen at two restaurants and a movie theater on July 12, 1994, the night of the killings, Richardson said.

Both sides agree the Rafays’ neighbors heard muffled, hammering sounds at the house between 9:30 and 10 p.m., when the defendants were eating dinner. Richardson contends that’s when the killings occurred — not later, when the defendants say they were at a movie and prosecutors contend they had sneaked out of the theater — and were committing murder.

Atif Rafay covered his eyes when Richardson displayed a photo of his father’s body in bed, the wall near his head covered with blood.

Richardson faulted police for not following up on a hair found in the bed with Tariq Rafay’s body, a fingerprint in the downstairs shower or a bloody footprint in the garage — none matching Burns or any of the Rafays.

Authorities said Burns called police early on July 13, 1994, to say he and Rafay had returned from a night out to find Tariq and Sultana Rafay dead. He did not mention the couple’s 20-year-old autistic daughter, Basma, who died of her injuries hours later.

Rafay’s parents, both 56, had moved to Bellevue just four months before the slayings. Tariq Rafay, a structural engineer, had found a job there in 1992 but for a time commuted from Vancouver, British Columbia, where the family had immigrated from Pakistan.

Atif Rafay, fresh from his first year at Cornell University, had been visiting Burns and other friends in Vancouver. On July 7, he and Burns took a bus to Bellevue to visit the Rafays.

On July 12, they told police, they went out for dinner and a movie, discovering the deaths when they returned to the house.

Burns and Rafay returned to Canada on July 15 — the day relatives gathered for a memorial service.

In August 1995, they were arrested in Canada. In the same month, the family estate, valued at about $300,000, was turned over to Rafay.

In the July 1995 tape, Burns told the undercover RCMP officers that he wielded the weapon — an aluminum baseball bat — because Rafay is "a little guy," about a head shorter than Burns. He assured them Rafay "might not be that good at it, but as far as tightlippedness," he could be trusted.

Rafay told them, "I guess I just didn’t have the nerve. … In general, I was pretty freaked out."

The defendants, in custody since 1995, were extradited to the United States in 2001.