No plea in teen’s killing

A mother went to court Thursday hoping someone would step forward to take responsibility and apologize for the Aug. 21 beating and stabbing death of her 16-year-old son, whose body was found in a grave near Marysville.

Nobody did, despite a scheduled court hearing for a guilty plea in the case of Jenson Hugh Hankins, who will turn 17 on Wednesday. The Snohomish County Superior Court calendar called for Hankins to plead guilty to a reduced charge of second-degree murder in the death of John Jasmer.

After a long talk with his Seattle attorney, Rachel Levy, and consultation with Hankins’ father, the defendant was marched away by custodial officers to a jail holding cell, and Donna Jasmer and other family members were left disappointed.

The dead youth, Hankins and a second defendant, Joshua David Goldman, 18, were all Roosevelt High School students in Seattle and were teammates on the school’s football team.

Both Hankins and Goldman are charged with first-degree murder in what prosecutors said could have been a revenge killing because of an allegation that Jasmer had raped Hankins’ 15-year-old girlfriend.

"We’re just praying for all the kids, theirs and ours," Donna Jasmer said.

The defendants are accused of luring their friend to an isolated area near the Tulalip Casino and attacking him. He was suffocated, stabbed and beaten before being placed in a grave dug earlier, prosecutors say.

Deputy prosecutor Ed Stemler ran into a tough legal snarl last month when a judge ruled that Seattle police used unlawful coercion when they questioned Hankins during the initial investigation of Jasmer’s disappearance.

That made all his statements, including a confession, inadmissible in court. Levy argued that it was a combination of impermissible tactics by Seattle detectives and Hankins’ young age that required elimination of the statements at trial.

She said Hankins made it clear to detectives that he lacked sophistication in dealing with police, and officers told him he had forfeited his rights before he gave a taped interview.

Stemler argued that Hankins repeatedly had been told that he had a right to remain silent and to have an attorney present. Judge Thomas Wynne disagreed,and said the confession can’t be used in court.

Stemler has asked the judge to reconsider his decision, and a hearing is set for April 16 before Wynne.

On Thursday, Jasmer’s friends and family gathered in the back of the courtroom thinking there would be a guilty plea.

Afterward, Stemler said only, "The hearing is stricken for today."

He was asked if exclusion of Hankins’ confession had anything to do with his offer to let him plead to the lesser charge of second-degree murder.

"I prefer not to talk about plea negotiations in the paper," Stemler said.

Meanwhile, Levy would say only that "nothing happened. I don’t think anything is going to happen before" the scheduled May 21 trial date, she said. Goldman’s trial is set for May 14.

Reporter Jim Haley: 425-339-3447 or haley@heraldnet.com.

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