Two dads shook hands in a courtroom Thursday signifying a common bond: They’re both mourning the loss of children.
Bill Burkheimer’s daughter is dead, murdered in September 2002 at the hands of several young men, including Matthew Andreas Durham, 19, of Lynnwood.
Matthew Durham, the son of Victor Durham, will be lost to his family for the next quarter-century.
Matthew Durham was sentenced to 25 years and 10 months Thursday for his role in the shooting death of Rachel Burkheimer. He pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and will spend all but a month or two of that term behind bars.
He was one of two people sentenced Thursday afternoon by Snohomish County Superior Court Judge Linda Krese for the crime, which the jurist called tragic and senseless.
The second person, John Alan Whitaker, 23, of Everett was convicted June 21 of aggravated first-degree murder. Under state law, Krese had no choice in the sentence and imposed a term of life in prison without possibility of release.
Victor Durham spoke during his son’s sentencing hearing, apologizing for the death of the 18-year-old Marysville woman, then turning to face the victim’s family.
He said he would have been enraged if someone had killed his child.
“You handled yourself with dignity,” he told Bill Burkheimer.
The two exchanged the warm handshake as Victor Durham returned to his seat in the courtroom, where he hugged his daughter, Alessand Durham, 17.
It was a court day with little other drama, because Whitaker’s sentence was preordained under the law and both the prosecution and defense recommended the minimum prison term for Durham.
Durham, then a Lynnwood High School student, drove Whitaker and two other men to a remote spot off Reiter Road near Gold Bar. In the back of Durham’s Jeep was a large sports bag with Rachel Burkheimer stuffed inside.
She was beaten, robbed of her jewelry, forced to disrobe and ordered to kneel in a grave that Whitaker had helped dig.
Then John Phillip Anderson, the victim’s former boyfriend, shot her several times.
Anderson, 22, of Everett has also been sentenced to prison for life without possibility of release. Another man convicted by a jury, Yusef “Kevin” Jihad, 34, of Everett was convicted of first-degree murder and was sentenced to 37 years in prison.
Three more people involved in the kidnapping have yet to be sentenced.
Durham was instrumental in cracking the case. He led sheriff’s detective Scott Fenter to the grave site near power lines and off-road vehicle trails in the Cascade foothills.
Krese called the killing inexplicable and noted that Durham and Whitaker had chances to stop the shooting but did nothing.
Still, she acknowledged, that it could still be a missing-person case if Durham had not told deputies what he knew.
Matthew Durham told the judge that he realizes he can’t feel the pain of the Burkheimer family, and apologized “for my actions and, more than that, my inactions.”
Whitaker said he did not kill Rachel Burkheimer. “I did not want her to be killed,” he said. “That is the truth, and I hope the truth will be vindicated someday.”
John Muenster, Whitaker’s Seattle attorney, said he will appeal the conviction, as well as the determination that Whitaker’s role was aggravated murder, requiring a life sentence.
Reporter Jim Haley: 425-339-3447 or haley@heraldnet.com.
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