EVERETT — It’s now up to a Snohomish County jury to decide whether Yusef "Kevin" Jihad is a killer or possibly a coward.
Jurors were scheduled today to begin deliberating Jihad’s role in the September 2002 abduction and shooting death of Rachel Rose Burkheimer, 18, of Marysville.
Jihad, 34, of Everett has been on trial since early this month, facing a legal smorgasbord of charges, including aggravated murder, first-degree murder, kidnapping and conspiracy.
He took the witness stand in his own defense this week, testifying that he considered Burkheimer a friend and was "ashamed" to admit he did nothing to save her because he feared the wrath of co-defendant John Anderson, 22.
All evidence at Jihad’s trial appears to point to Anderson, a former Burkheimer boyfriend, as the person who fatally shot her in the Cascade Mountain foothills near Gold Bar. Anderson is scheduled to go on trial for aggravated murder later this year.
Prosecutors contend Jihad is just as culpable because he was the leader of a crime group responsible for the murder, and Jihad allegedly directed Anderson and others to kill Burkheimer because he perceived her as a threat to the gang.
Lawyers spent all morning Wednesday sparring over jury instructions. Much of the dispute focused on the legal importance of the term "accomplice" and how it fits into the facts of the case.
There is no evidence that Jihad was present for Burkheimer’s killing. Instead, he is charged with assisting and conspiring to set the crime in motion. A key question for jurors was whether Jihad or others premeditated the shooting. The answer could determine whether he’ll spend the rest of his life in prison.
Much of the evidence about Jihad’s role came from co-defendants who reached deals with prosecutors and pleaded guilty to crimes ranging from kidnapping to murder.
Deputy prosecutor Michael Downes told jurors there was ample evidence that Jihad played a direct role in Burkheimer’s kidnapping, not only arranging for it to occur but also ordering the others to put her in his garage in a failed attempt to hide the crime from his girlfriend.
At that point, "people are openly discussing how Rachel should die," Downes told jurors. "Ask yourself what it must have been like for her, bound and gagged" and awaiting death for up to five hours.
The prosecutor at one point held up a photograph of how Burkheimer appeared in life. He said she was killed because she ran afoul of a group of people who were concerned only with themselves, regardless of the cost to others.
Burkheimer’s killing made no sense, the prosecutor said. She "paid the price because — because."
Jihad attorney Mickey Krom pleaded with jurors to treat the case against Jihad with the same care that they would if the defendant were their own son.
"Another tragedy, another tragedy is going to happen to Kevin and his family if he is held accountable to something he did not do," Krom said.
The defense attorney waved his arms and stalked back and forth before the jury box, arguing that police had lost objectivity, prosecutors had lost perspective and a bunch of guilty people had been allowed to lie with impunity.
At one point, Krom climbed into the witness stand as he talked about what he said was the false testimony of one admitted Burkheimer kidnapper who had been allowed to cut a deal.
"He lied right to your face," Krom said.
Downes countered that police and prosecutors let the evidence lead them to their conclusions about the crime, and said no effort had been made to portray Jihad’s co-defendants as anything other than what they were: liars, drug users and criminals.
"We did not put an ad in the paper looking for witnesses to a murder," he said.
Reporter Scott North: 425-339-3431 or north@heraldnet.com.
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