By Jim Haley
Herald Writer
For the first time in 2 1/2 days of testimony, Indle Gifford King Jr. displayed a touch of humanity as he read a letter he authored to the wife of another inmate in the Snohomish County Jail.
He broke down several times as he read the long letter in front of jurors who soon will be deciding his fate.
The emotion burst forth while he read passages about being childless after two unsuccessful marriages to a pair of mail-order brides, not while talking about Anastasia King, his murdered wife.
He divorced his first wife in the 1990s, and she settled in Ohio. King had filed for a divorce from Anastasia King, 20, before she disappeared the day she and King returned to their Mountlake Terrace home after visiting her parents in Kyrgyzstan, in the former Soviet Union.
With the conclusion of King’s testimony, both the state and defense rested their cases. It’s expected the jury will be instructed on the law today, and the lawyers will give their closing arguments.
King, 40, is accused of first-degree murder and witness tampering. The prosecution alleges that he enlisted a boarder at his home, Daniel K. Larson, 21, to strangle his wife while the 270-pound King sat on her.
The state said the two men buried her in a shallow grave in an illegal dump on the Tulalip Indian Reservation. Larson struck a deal with prosecutors, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and agreed to testify against King.
The defense case is that only Larson, a convicted sex offender, killed Anastasia King because she wanted him to leave their home.
King showed emotion when jurors heard him read an April 2001 letter addressed to Naomi Turgeon, the wife of another jail inmate that King befriended. She’s married to convicted murderer Christopher Turgeon.
Christopher Turgeon also testified in this trial about a message he received from Larson. In it, Larson goes against his own testimony by claiming sole responsibility for killing Anastasia King.
King, the defendant, has frequently been argumentative, insistent on getting his story out to jurors, sometimes with rapid-fire patter. Despite frequent objections, Deputy prosecutor Coleen St. Clair has been relentless trying to get King to explain his lies to police and others and schemes against Anastasia King.
On Tuesday, the emotion finally flashed.
"If I am guilty of anything, it’s perhaps being an American male in search of a wife and mother," King wrote to Naomi Turgeon.
He hesitated several times while reading the letter, apparently unable to continue until he gathered himself.
"All I wanted was love, respect and children," King wrote.
But he also wrote that he had "no significant remorse" for Anastasia King.
St. Clair pointed out that the use of the word "remorse" was an unusual choice.
"You’ve been mincing words with me for 2 1/2 days, right?" St. Clair asked King, drawing an objection from defense attorney David Allen.
"The remorse is guilt I couldn’t do more to protect her. I didn’t see this coming," King responded.
King went on the witness stand Thursday afternoon, at first answering questions from Allen and then St. Clair. When St. Clair finished late Tuesday, Allen unexpectedly had no more questions for his client.
Earlier Tuesday, King called his young wife, whom he was divorcing, a "princess," even though he suspected she had been dating other men while they were married.
"I tried to leave her in June," King testified. "I tried to leave her in September." The pair reconciled their differences, he said, "because she was my princess. My princess, damn right."
You can call Herald Writer Jim Haley at 425-339-3447
or send e-mail to haley@heraldnet.com.
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