By Jim Haley
Herald Writer
When the jury verdict was read, Dale Robert Chervenell whispered "Thank you," sat down and quietly began to sob.
It had been nearly 25 months since Chervenell last tasted freedom because of his arrest for second-degree murder in the death of an Everett man he stabbed repeatedly.
He faced two trials and two juries, living in the Snohomish County Jail in the intervening time.
Chervenell, 50, came to court Thursday not knowing if he would be a free man or was destined to spend the rest of his life in prison.
A conviction would have meant life in prison without chance of release under the state’s three-strikes law, the conviction of three violent felonies. He had previously been convicted of six felonies, including two robberies.
The first jury found him guilty in April 2000, but the verdict was thrown out after one of the jurors admitted conducting experiments at home to determine the depth of knife wounds. The juror shared the results with other members of the panel during deliberations.
On Thursday, the second Snohomish County Superior Court jury found Chervenell innocent.
"I’m happy," he said of earning his freedom.
Of the fight over a woman and the killing, he said, "I’m just sorry how everything came out."
His lawyers argued that Chervenell had been scared to death of roommate Sean Becker, 30, who returned to the trailer they shared after drinking heavily and using cocaine.
Becker drove up in a truck with one flat tire, a vehicle he had just stolen by ramming through a fence of a lumberyard he was burglarizing, said his lawyers, Natalie Tarantino and Kathleen Kyle.
According to testimony, Becker was abusive to a woman he and Chervenell had been dating, and he attacked Chervenell and threatened him with death when the latter attempted to intervene.
"It was absolutely a self-defense case," Tarantino said. "He threatened to kill my client, and then he lunged at him. My client felt he had to use a knife to protect himself."
Although lawyers presented a self-defense case, the jury didn’t agree that Chervenell was innocent for that reason.
After the verdict, Judge James Allendoerfer sent jurors back to deliberate whether self-defense or some other element swayed jurors. Under state law, a person acquitted after proving he or she used justifiable force could be compensated by the state for loss of freedom.
Jurors said the defense did not prove that the killing was justified for self-defense reasons. The jurors told Allendoerfer the state simply didn’t prove it was second-degree murder beyond a reasonable doubt.
Deputy prosecutor John Stansell said Becker died from multiple stab wounds, including one that was 9 inches deep, and another that penetrated his chest after passing through his arm.
"It was not reasonable force," Stansell told jurors.
You can call Herald Writer Jim Haley at 425-339-3447 or send e-mail to haley@heraldnet.com.
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