EVERETT — A Gold Bar man accused of killing his girlfriend and dismembering her body after she broke what he called a “blood oath” was found guilty Friday of first-degree murder.
Eric Christensen, 40, laughed as he was led in shackles from the courtroom. He kept laughing as guards began taking him back to jail. Christensen faces more than 45 years in prison for the death of Sherry Harlan. He is scheduled to be sentenced June 18.
Jurors deliberated for about three hours after a two-week trial that included graphic photographs and grisly details. Snohomish County Superior Court Judge Thomas Wynne told attorneys that he planned to advise jurors that counseling will be available if they feel traumatized by what they saw and heard in court.
As lawyers gave their closing arguments Friday it was clear that only the degree of Christensen’s guilt was in question.
His attorney, Kathleen Kyle, told jurors that Christensen killed Harlan but maintained he didn’t plan the slaying.
“We know Eric has a temper. When Eric loses his temper, he hurts himself. He destroys property,” Kyle said. “When Eric lost his temper on Jan. 2, he hurt Sherry Harlan.”
He should be found guilty of second-degree murder, she said.
He didn’t kill Harlan because she broke the blood oath. He already knew before Jan. 2 that Harlan continued to communicate with the other man. Something happened inside of Harlan’s Everett apartment but there is no evidence that it was premeditated murder, Kyle told jurors.
His attempt to cover up the crime isn’t evidence that he planned to kill Harlan either, the attorney said. Instead, it proves that he was a desperate man who didn’t carefully think through what he did.
Harlan’s skull was found inside her burned-out car off Reiter Road. Other remains were located scattered around east Snohomish County. A witness told police Christensen stuffed the remains in plastic garbage bags and dumped them off in the woods. He threw some body parts into the brush and over embankments, the man told jurors on Wednesday.
Some remains were never located.
“Sherry Harlan was not hurt by the defendant. She did not just die. She was brutally murdered,” Snohomish County deputy prosecutor Craig Matheson said during closing arguments.
Christensen stabbed Harlan at least four times. The tip of a knife was found embedded in Harlan’s skull. Christensen then skillfully dismembered Harlan’s body, Matheson said. He purposefully removed her sexual organs and left breast and made attempts to pull out her heart, the deputy prosecutor said. He positioned her head next to a knife on the front seat of her car before he torched the vehicle, Matheson said.
The prosecutor told jurors that these actions give insight into what Christensen was thinking when he killed Harlan, 35. They hold some sort of meaning for Christensen.
Matheson emphasized that Christensen’s actions were not in keeping with the Wiccan faith. He surmised that those who belong to the Index church where Christensen attended services were just as horrified by what Christensen did as jurors were.
“This is not a Wiccan killing,” Matheson said.
The slaying was about jealousy and anger. Christensen was enraged after he found text messages between Harlan and the man Christensen called “sugar daddy,” Matheson said. The defendant believed Harlan was his possession and he couldn’t abide her breaking her promise. In Christensen’s mind, he had no choice but to kill Harlan, the prosecutor said.
That morning he went to the store to buy some medicine for Harlan, who was having stomach problems. He returned to her apartment and searched her cell phone while she was in the shower. He saw a message from the other man:
“See what two men does for (you). Too much stress. (Laugh out loud).”
That is the message that got Harlan killed, Matheson said. Not only had she broken her oath, but she and the “sugar daddy” were laughing about it, Matheson said.
Every step Christensen took from the bedroom to the kitchen where he grabbed knives and every second that passed on his way back to the bedroom and Harlan demonstrates that the killing was planned, the deputy prosecutor said.
“Why would he walk to the bedroom to the kitchen to get a knife unless he was planning to kill her?” Matheson asked jurors. “There is no reasonable explanation other than that was the plan.”
Diana Hefley: 425-339-3463; hefley@heraldnet.com.
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