Jurors sat straight in their chairs as an eyewitness slowly gave them a glimpse of the killing of Rachel Burkheimer on a September night in 2002.
Matthew Andreas Durham, now 19, guided them through the digging of a grave and the flashes of "a lot" of pistol shots that ended the life of Burkheimer, 18, of Marysville.
Directed by deputy prosecutor Michael Downes, Durham made it clear that it was John Anderson who was giving the orders to the three young men who accompanied him on Sept. 23, and that Anderson fired the pistol.
The testimony came in the aggravated first-degree murder trial of Anderson, who stands to spend the rest of his life in prison if convicted.
Durham spent only part of the day on the witness stand Wednesday before court was adjourned after Anderson’s defense attorney, public defender Susan Gaer, became ill.
Prosecutors allege Anderson was one of the ringleaders of a gang of small-time criminals who killed Burkheimer because they believed she was giving information about their group to a rival gang.
A secondary theory is that Anderson was jealous that Burkheimer, his ex-girlfriend, had started dating a rival.
Durham, a 17-year-old Lynnwood High School senior at the time, drove Anderson and two others to an area off Reiter Road near Gold Bar in eastern Snohomish County.
The four piled into Durham’s red Jeep Cherokee after Burkheimer was abducted, bound and beaten at the residence of Yusef "Kevin" Jihad, 34, of Everett, according to testimony. On April 5, Jihad was convicted of first-degree murder, kidnapping and conspiracy.
Snohomish County sheriff’s detectives, still investigating Burkheimer’s disappearance in early October that year, persuaded Durham to lead them to the remote grave site and tell them part of what happened. He later expanded his story in a series of taped interviews.
With Burkheimer stuffed into a large sports bag in the back of his Jeep, Durham parked in the killing ground and, "I heard John Anderson tell (the other two) to start digging."
Did he know what they were digging?
"A hole," Durham responded. After some prodding, he added, "I assumed what it was for."
It took the other two men 30 to 45 minutes to dig the grave. Durham, who stayed in the Jeep, heard Anderson sternly tell Burkheimer to disrobe.
"Then I heard gunshots, a lot of them," Durham said.
He said he was looking straight ahead, but in the darkness saw flashes from the pistol. There was a brief break in the gunfire while a jammed gun was fixed.
He identified Anderson as the person who did the shooting, based on what the defendant said when he returned to the Jeep.
The next day, Durham said, he and a companion burned the sports bag and threw the murder weapon into a stream on orders from Anderson and Jihad. The two also were warned repeatedly by Anderson and Jihad not to say anything to police, or they also would be killed, Durham told the jurors.
He added that he was afraid for himself and his family members.
Gaer attacked Durham’s memory of events and wanted to know why he left out many details in his earlier statements to police.
Durham pleaded guilty to first-degree murder for his part, and agreed to testify against the other defendants.
The state is expected soon to give the jurors an even closer look at what happened that night with the testimony of co-defendant Maurice Carlos Rivas, 19, of Lynnwood, who prosecutors say helped dig the grave.
Reporter Jim Haley: 425-339-3447 or haley@heraldnet.com.
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