It was the same ugly story, the same grim litany of conspiracy and cruelty that Snohomish County prosecutors say put Rachel Burkheimer in a crude grave in the Cascade Mountain foothills in 2002 .
For the second time in less than two months, a Superior Court jury on Thursday began hearing testimony against one of the men charged with murdering the 18-year-old from Marysville.
This time, the trial is for John Anderson, 22, who prosecutors say repeatedly shot Burkheimer in a crime they contend was inspired by a mix of jealousy and gang-inspired paranoia.
Anderson, who is charged with aggravated murder and conspiracy, was one of the leaders of an Everett-based gang that dubbed itself the Northwest Mafia, deputy prosecutor Julie Mohr told jurors.
Burkheimer had dated Anderson, but she’d rejected him as a boyfriend. That didn’t stop her from still seeing him socially, even as she began hanging around people that Anderson and others in the gang considered their enemies, Mohr said.
"Rachel Burkheimer was a typical 18-year-old girl who thought she knew more about the world than she did," the prosecutor told jurors.
Burkheimer went willingly when asked to visit the Everett duplex where Anderson and the others hung out. She didn’t know they were planning to kidnap and terrorize her there, Mohr said. "What she didn’t know was that Sept. 23, 2002, would be the last day of her life."
Prosecutors contend Burkheimer was bound, beaten and tormented for hours before being stuffed into a large duffel bag and driven to her death near Gold Bar.
Anderson’s attorney, public defender Susan Gaer, urged jurors not rush to judgment.
"There is not one piece of physical evidence that will show John Anderson committed these crimes," she said.
Rather, Gaer said, the case is built entirely on the word of co-defendants who cut deals with prosecutors and pleaded guilty to lesser offenses in exchange for promises to testify. One of those men has given 11 differing statements, and all of them have admitted telling multiple lies, Gaer said.
Deputy prosecutor Michael Downes began the case against Anderson by calling the same pair of witnesses he used to open the trial of Yusef "Kevin" Jihad, 34, of Everett. Jihad, the man prosecutors said led the gang that killed Burkheimer, was convicted April 5 of first-degree murder, conspiracy and kidnapping. He faces 40 years in prison.
As they had done at the previous trial, the slain teen’s father, Bill Burkheimer, and her sister, Meghan Burkheimer both testified about the frantic days they spent searching for her before the killing was confirmed.
Bill Burkheimer fought his way through tears and sobs when shown a photograph of Rachel Burkheimer. He said he’d feared his child was caught in a downward spiral of depression and drug use after the death of a friend in a car crash. He’d been trying to get her help when she was killed.
Meghan Burkheimer identified her younger sister’s jewelry, including a ring that had belonged to the friend who had died in the accident.
Jurors have already been told that one of Rachel Burkheimer’s final acts was to plead with her killers that she be allowed to keep the ring before she was shot.
Anderson showed little reaction Thursday. He sat quietly at the defense table wearing wire-framed glasses, his hair neatly trimmed and dressed in a pale pink pullover sweater, button-down shirt and dark slacks.
If convicted as charged, Anderson faces life in prison without possibility of release. His trial is expected to last up to three weeks.
Reporter Scott North: 425-339-3431 or north@heraldnet.com.
JUSTIN BEST / The Herald
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