John Anderson was infatuated with Rachel Burkheimer, but his was an affection steeped in threatened violence, a Snohomish County jury was told Monday.
On trial for aggravated murder and accused of fatally shooting Burkheimer in September 2002, Anderson was portrayed Monday as an abuser who couldn’t let his ex-girlfriend go.
Anderson and Burkheimer had dated for a time in 2001, but still saw each other socially in the months before her death.
The Everett man, 22, was angry and threatened violence whenever he learned that Burkheimer, 18, of Marysville, was seeing other men, a former friend of the couple testified.
J.J. Brazwell said he had a ringside seat for the tempestuous relationship because he had been Anderson’s roommate for a couple of years.
The couple fought constantly and knew the relationship would never work, but Brazwell said Anderson wasn’t willing to let go. He told jurors how the defendant had once crept into the backyard of a home where Burkheimer was attending a slumber party and after seeing men in the home, broke inside and forcibly removed her.
Brazwell said he and Burkheimer were close, and the friendship became romantic for a couple of months in the spring of 2002. When Brazwell told Anderson, his former roommate responded with threats toward Burkheimer.
“He said he was going to beat her up. Exact words,” Brazwell testified.
“What about you?” asked deputy prosecutor Michael Downes.
“He said he didn’t have a problem with me, at the time,” Brazwell said.
That didn’t last.
Rumors began circulating that Brazwell was growing marijuana in his Mill Creek-area apartment. There was increasing talk that Brazwell was some sort of rival to the Northwest Mafia, the Everett-based crime gang Anderson allegedly helped lead.
Brazwell, who said he works as a roofer, came home one day to find somebody had tried to kick in his front door.
Burkheimer’s friendship with Brazwell heightened suspicions among members of the Northwest Mafia, particularly after they got word that Burkheimer was “talking bad about them,” said Jennifer Vink, 21, a former member of the group.
She testified that Brazwell’s home was targeted by Anderson and others for a home-invasion robbery.
It was a weekend morning, not long before Burkheimer’s killing, she said. The first plan that day was to rob a pharmacy, said Vink, who now lives in California, has two jobs and is going to school.
She drove the car, which carried Anderson and three other Northwest Mafia members, including Jeff Barth, 23, who was riding in the trunk area of her hatchback.
The plan for the pharmacy robbery was aborted because the business was closed, Vink testified. The gang then drove to Brazwell’s residence, equipped with walkie-talkie radios and code names.
Vink said her Northwest Mafia code name was “Miss Lady.” Anderson was “Mr. Everything,” and Yusef “Kevin” Jihad, the group’s top leader, was “Mr. International.” Vink said she stayed at the car serving as a lookout.
The group planned to break into Brazwell’s apartment and steal his marijuana, but that didn’t happen because “the alarm started beeping, and there was a guy with his daughter walking around,” Vink told jurors.
“They had a pretty inept morning, didn’t they?” Downes observed of the gang members.
Reporter Scott North: 425-339-3431 or north@heraldnet.com.
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