Over family’s pleas, life sentence reduced in ‘heinous’ Everett murder

EVERETT — Gail Jubie’s family begged a judge to keep the man who killed her in prison for the rest of his life.

Her brother, Dave, argued no one in the family would be comfortable with Brandon White being free after he shot and stabbed Gail Jubie, 37, in an Everett home invasion in 2000. White was a month from turning 20.

“Brandon cannot be out of prison, that is where he needs to be,” Gail’s brother wrote in a letter to the judge. “We cannot sleep if he’s out, and we haven’t had some sleep for some time.”

Over two decades ago, a judge sentenced White to life in prison without the possibility of parole. On Friday, another Snohomish County Superior Court judge, Edirin Okoloko, changed that sentence to 39 years — a decision that left both the defendant’s and the victim’s families dejected.

“To release the defendant, as the defendant argues, with time served at 22 years would disregard the heinous nature of the crime,” Okoloko said.

The new sentence comes amid a reform movement to give more leniency in sentencing for younger people, whose brains are still developing.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2012 “children are constitutionally different from adults for purposes of sentencing.” In Washington, a decision known as Monschke extended that thinking to 18-, 19- and 20-year-old defendants in 2021.

In the Washington decision, the court ruled judges must consider the age of defendants in sentencing.

White is just the latest Snohomish County defendant to get a reduced prison term for killing someone as a young man.

Just earlier this month, a judge resentenced Chad Walton to 32 years in the 1997 murders of a father and son in Arlington.

“If our society is to believe in the merit of our criminal justice system, we must believe that there are success stories,” Paul Sarkis, a supporter of White who was recently released from prison after over two decades, said in court this month. “Don’t we have to consider that some people do change?”

‘No light’

At 16, White was kicked out of his family’s house with seven dollars and a backpack full of clothes.

He slept on construction sites and in recycle bins. He fell deep into substance abuse. Sometimes, his drug use was “out of control,” White said in court this month.

After her father died, Gail Jubie lived alone on Sunnyside Boulevard. White’s mother and stepfather lived up the street.

On the morning of Dec. 11, 2000, White, then 19, went to their house. He put on some formal clothes and a baseball cap before heading out toward the Jubie home.

White asked to use Jubie’s phone, but once inside, he stabbed her, prosecutors alleged. She got away and ran outside.

A neighbor across the street heard screaming, according to court papers. The woman looked out her window. Jubie and White struggled on the porch. White shot the victim in the head.

White dragged Jubie back into the home by her clothes. The neighbor called the Jubie home to see if Gail was OK. White answered the phone and told her Jubie was in the bathroom.

White eventually left the Jubie home through the back and walked north toward his mother’s house, witnesses told investigators. The neighbors called 911.

When officers arrived, they found Jubie still alive, but bleeding profusely from stab wounds. She was airlifted to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, where she died. An autopsy found 31 separate stab wounds.

Footprints led from the backyard of the Jubie home and stopped at the White property. Officers later found bloodstained slacks, a dress shirt and a suit jacket. Officers arrested White.

In a police interview, the suspect gave three inconsistent versions of what happened to Jubie, according to prosecutors. In one, his friend killed the woman and told him about it. In another, he and the friend had planned the killing together, but the friend had been the shooter. And in the third, White and the friend were both there, but the friend both stabbed and shot Jubie.

Through the criminal proceedings, White maintained his innocence. A jury convicted him of aggravated first-degree murder.

In December 2001, Judge Linda Krese sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole. A few months later, White wrote to then-Gov. Gary Locke he’d been “wrongfully convicted.”

Eventually, he acknowledged the rest of his life would be spent in prison.

“There was no light at any tunnel,” White said.

‘We’ll never know’

At a hearing this month, deputy prosecutor Craig Matheson pushed Judge Okoloko to maintain the original life prison term.

The Jubie family pleaded with Okoloko to do that.

Lawrence Jubie noted his sister would’ve turned 60 earlier this year.

“She probably would have a husband and children of her own,” Lawrence Jubie wrote in a letter to the judge. “I would have had a niece or nephew or perhaps both. We’ll never know what Gail’s future would have held.”

Arguing her client is a rehabilitated man, White’s attorney Alexandra Manno asked for just over 22 years.

Men who served time with White described him in court as a model inmate who improved their lives.

While in prison, White hasn’t received any infractions. A former Monroe Correctional Complex officer reported White was always trying to help. He got his GED and worked in the prison garden.

He has since gotten married. He has a young daughter and is expecting another child.

“If not a person like this, then who else?” Paul Sarkis asked.

In lengthy remarks, White, now 42, called his actions “inexcusable.” He said while imprisoned he has tried to be a role model for younger inmates. He wants to be a “positive light on the community.”

“I’ve just tried to shape myself into somebody that when they see me, maybe they’ll look at me one day as not what I’ve done in the past, but what I can do, what I can help in the future,” he said. “I will never be a criminal again.”

In court documents, Matheson, who also prosecuted White in 2000, wrote the defendant only took some responsibility because he had a chance at a new sentence. The deputy prosecutor also noted White didn’t renounce the other versions of the murder he reported to investigators.

“How can you claim you’ve been rehabilitated when you won’t admit what you’ve done?” Matheson asked.

After a hearing Feb. 9, Okoloko took a couple weeks before delivering his decision Friday. He cited Matheson’s arguments in sentencing White to 39 years, in between the two recommendations.

“Nothing the court does today will pretty much satisfy the families involved,” the judge said. “This is a tragedy of immense proportions.”

Jake Goldstein-Street: 425-339-3439; jake.goldstein-street@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @GoldsteinStreet.