John Anderson was just 11 when the state placed him in the OK Boys Ranch near Olympia.
The former group home for troubled boys was a place where kids were beaten and sexually assaulted and encouraged to fight like little gladiators. When its troubles were made public, it was closed after a scandal generated multimillion-dollar lawsuits.
Now 21 and charged with orchestrating the 2002 slaying of former girlfriend Rachel Burkheimer, it was Anderson’s tumultuous childhood in state care that played the greatest role in convincing Snohomish County Prosecuting Attorney Janice Ellis not to seek his execution.
The elected prosecutor on Wednesday explained her decision in a five-page statement that also announced that she will not seek death for Anderson’s co-defendant, John Whitaker, 23.
Both Everett men are charged with aggravated murder in the abduction, beating and shooting of Burkheimer, 18, of Marysville. If convicted, they now face automatic sentences of life in prison without possibility of release.
Ellis made clear that her decision was guided by pragmatism.
"Although I support the death penalty and view it as an appropriate means by which prosecutors can fulfill their duty to seek justice, its purpose and goals have become distorted and obscured by those who seek to undo it," she said.
Burkheimer’s mother and father declined comment on the decision. Ellis said she consulted with the slain woman’s family, and some were disappointed.
Anderson’s attorney, public defender Susan Gaer, said she was grateful the decision was weighed so carefully.
"I am just happy that they looked at it reasonably and took so many different factors into account, because there are so many factors involved in these decisions," she said.
Ellis said she spent weeks studying the case, as well as the complex legal issues surrounding the death penalty in Washington. She concluded that to seek execution for Anderson and Whitaker "would be futile, and therefore contrary to my duty to seek justice."
Anderson is accused of convincing Whitaker and seven other young men to assist him in abducting Burkheimer at a south Everett duplex, beating her in a garage and then slaying her in the Cascade Mountain foothills near Gold Bar. Anderson is accused of firing the fatal shots after Burkheimer was forced to wait while her grave was dug.
Ellis said she ruled out seeking death for Whitaker because capital punishment in Washington has been reserved for trigger men, not their accomplices.
In Anderson’s case, defense attorneys would have legally been able to share extensive information with jurors regarding their client’s troubled childhood at the OK Boys Ranch.
Gaer supplied that information in a report that was more than 60 pages, single-spaced, Ellis said. The prosecutor said she did additional research on her own, reviewing records as late as Wednesday.
Any jury asked to decide Anderson’s fate would have been assailed with similar information, Ellis said.
"Rather than focusing attention and resources on evidence relating to the crime for which Anderson is charged, the prosecution would have had to shadow box the specter of a youth damaged in state care," she said.
Court records show Anderson was about 9 when his mother voluntarily placed him in state foster care after he was diagnosed with severe hyperactivity.
He arrived at the OK Boys Ranch in 1993, just after he turned 11. He remained there for nearly two years, until the state-sanctioned foster home was closed in the midst of a scandal over rampant physical and sexual abuse of the children.
"He was subjected to so many problems at every level and failures of the system that should prevent children from being mistreated," Gaer said of her client.
Anderson was convicted of his first crimes while still at the ranch. His criminal career has continued unabated except during incarcerations. He already has six felony convictions, and nearly three dozen prosecutions for a variety of lesser offenses.
Whitaker’s attorney, John Muenster of Seattle, had filed court papers indicating that he would argue that seeking death for his client would be unfair in light of the plea agreement King County prosecutors reached with confessed Green River killer Gary Ridgway. Ridgway is now serving life in prison without hope of release after admitting to the murders of 48 young women and girls.
Ellis said Ridgway’s case had no impact on her decision, although she was mindful that an appellate court could decide differently.
Trials for Anderson and Whitaker are now scheduled for March.
Trials for two other defendants, Jeff Barth, 23, and Yusef Jihad, 33, are scheduled to begin in February. Both are charged with first-degree murder, kidnapping and conspiracy.
Superior Court Judge James Allendoerfer spent Wednesday afternoon listening to pretrial arguments in the cases.
Although Barth and Jihad allegedly were present when Burkheimer was kidnapped and beaten, neither was present when she was killed. Lawyers for both asked the judge Wednesday to decide whether grounds exist to support all the charges against their clients.
"My client’s involvement in the case, by anyone’s standards, was minimal to say the least," said Barth’s attorney, John Henry Browne of Seattle.
Allendoerfer told prosecutors he has concerns about the conspiracy charges and wants more information to help him decide later.
Although Browne earlier asked the judge to move the trials to Spokane because of media attention here, the lawyer agreed that the request should be delayed until after attempts are made to pick a jury in Snohomish County.
Allendoerfer said prospective jurors have already been summoned.
Click here to view Ellis’ news release (Requires the free Acrobat Reader)
Reporter Scott North: 425-339-3431 or north@heraldnet.com.
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