EVERETT — Rachel Burkheimer had been laughing and joking with people she thought were friends moments before John Phillip Anderson stormed into a south Everett duplex and punched the men sitting on either side of her.
The punches almost provoked a fistfight. Anderson and one of the men he hit, Jeffrey Scott Barth, drew pistols from their waistbands.
Burkheimer, 18, of Marysville headed for the door, but Anderson pulled her by the hair, punched her in the face and pushed her to the floor. Someone else kicked her.
Moments later, she was bound and gagged with duct tape, and Yusef "Kevin" Jihad, 34, ordered two men to carry her into the garage.
This was part of the scene painted for a Snohomish County Superior Court jury Wednesday by a participant in Burkheimer’s kidnapping. He was the first of five participants to testify about her abduction and shooting death on Sept. 23, 2002.
On trial is Jihad, 34, of Everett. He is charged with aggravated first-degree murder and other crimes that could result in life in prison without release.
Anderson, 22, and John Alan Whitaker, 23, both of Everett, also are charged with aggravated murder and will strand trial later. Anderson had been Burkheimer’s boyfriend, but prosecutors allege he was jealous because she had started dating a member of a rival gang.
The key witness Wednesday was Tony Joseph Williams, 21, of Everett, who told the jury he accepted a plea agreement with prosecutors that could get him out of prison in less than 10 years. He earlier had been charged with murder and faced a possible penalty of 25 years or more.
He conceded he stayed around and helped by turning up the stereo to drown out Burkheimer’s screams and fetching the duct tape from a drawer in the kitchen. Neither he nor any of the other men in the duplex lifted a finger to help her, he said.
In answering deputy prosecutor Michael Downes’ questions, Williams calmly described what happened in the duplex. Along with the others, he was a member of a gang that made money by selling drugs or stealing.
He identified Jihad, by far the oldest of the group, as the boss.
He described Jihad taking charge once Burkheimer was bound, telling Anderson and Whitaker to carry her into the garage. Jihad also told Anderson "to clean her fingernails out because the bitch might have scratched him," Williams told jurors.
Later, Williams overhead Jihad telling Anderson: "You started this … in the house. You have to finish it," Williams said.
Anderson started to protest, saying he had tied up and beaten Burkheimer before and she didn’t call the police.
"Jihad said she knew too much about what was going on," Williams said.
What did she know about, Downes asked?
"I remember (Jihad) saying she was a risk. She knew too much, they needed to take care of her," Williams told jurors.
Defense lawyer Mickey Krom has told the jury that Jihad, although present for the assault on Burkheimer, did not take part in it. He also has argued that Jihad was merely trying to get Anderson to take care of his domestic situation somewhere else.
Burkheimer was held captive in the garage three or four hours before Jihad’s girlfriend, duplex owner Trissa Conner, returned home and told all the participants to get out.
Prosecutors allege that four men — Anderson, Whitaker, Maurice Carlos Rivas, 19, of Lynnwood and Matthew Andreas Durham, 19, of Lynnwood — stuffed her into a large sports bag and drove her to a rural spot near Gold Bar.
There the men dug a grave, made her strip and climb into the hole before Anderson shot her numerous times, prosecutors allege.
On Wednesday, Williams said he left the duplex when Conner returned and came home sometime later. Jihad asked him why he had left.
"I told him I got involved with these guys to make money, not to beat up on girls," he said.
Hours later, the four men who had been in Durham’s red Jeep Cherokee returned to the duplex. Williams noted that Rivas and Whitaker argued about the blisters on their hands.
"They were arguing about whose was worse," Williams said.
Defense lawyer Krom started to cross-examine Williams, challenging whether he told the truth Wednesday or said what the police and prosecutor wanted to hear. Williams is scheduled to resume testimony today.
Reporter Jim Haley: 425-339-3447 or haley@heraldnet.com.
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