Makeshift memorial to Mikarah "Tinky" Sanders on Jan. 7, 2010. Photo by Scott Schaefer.

On Monday (Oct. 17) the King County Prosecutor’s Office sentenced Matthew Dubois, who shot and killed his girlfriend in Burien on Dec. 31, 2009, to 14 years in prison.

Dubois pleaded guilty to Murder Second Degree in the shooting death of his girlfriend, Mikarah “Tinky” Sanders, in an apartment complex in the 12400 block of Ambaum Blvd. SW.

As we reported then, Dubois shot Sanders, then himself. Initially police believed that there was a shooter on the loose, and they scoured the area searching for a gunman. It wasn’t until later that they realized that Dubois actually shot himself.

Police say that Dubois was upset with something he read on Sanders’ MySpace Page (which is still online) before getting into a fight and shooting her in the head.

Dubois, who was 16 at the time, was charged as an adult, and he pleaded guilty Aug. 26.

Today’s sentencing was before Judge Cheryl Carey at the Norm Maleng Regional Justice Center.

by Ralph Nichols

A few days before the official grand opening of SCORE – South Correctional Entity Multijurisdictional Misdemeanant Jail – I was ushered into this $52 million facility.

I wasn’t there as an inmate, nothing that eye raising, but as a reporter for a look around the inside before it started receiving those on the wrong side of the law.

SCORE is the result of King County’s notice to suburban cities a few years ago that, by 2012, they would need their own jail facilities because county jails could then no longer accept their inmates accused or convicted of misdemeanor crimes.

Reacting to that announcement, Burien, Des Moines, Tukwila, SeaTac, Renton, Auburn and Federal Way joined together to build a new jail. Six of the cities forged a financing package. Des Moines is the host city.

The 16 acres on which SCORE is built is land donated by the Port of Seattle just south of Sea-Tac International Airport.

“We made it happen!” Des Moines Mayor Bob Sheckler, vice chairman of the SCORE Board of Directors, declared at the outset of this tour.

The 164,000 square foot facility has a capacity for housing 813 inmates, which will allow for increased demand for jail space in the future. Currently SCORE’s member cities have about 400 misdemeanor inmates scattered in jails around the state.

Des Moines Mayor Bob Sheckler at the opening dedication of SCORE. In the background is Jail Director Penny Bartley.

There are 29 inmate beds dedicated for medical housing. Most inmate health problems are related to drugs and alcohol, SCORE Director Penny Bartley noted.

SCORE has almost 150 full-time-equivalent staff positions, including correctional officers and food and medical services – which include 24-hour care.

Member cities will fund SCORE operations with payments totaling approximately $11million annually, which is “cheaper, a considerable savings,” than what the cities collectively were paying contract cities for jail services, Sheckler said.

SCORE, added Sheckler, “is really high tech … it is state of the art” with steel cells and unique construction and building materials. Although under an airport flight path, the facility is soundproofed so on the inside planes can’t be heard flying overhead.

Bartley said about 60 percent of SCORE inmates will be there as pre-trial holds. About 72 percent will be there for two weeks, which is the average stay. Most will be charged with driving under the influence, fourth-degree assault, and driving without a license.

A unique efficiency in this jail is video arraignment capabilities to reduce the number of inmates transported to municipal and district courts. Judges will be in their courtrooms, while defendants, their attorneys, and translators if required will appear before them on SCORE’s video facilities.

Visitors except attorneys will talk with inmates on a separate video hookup outside the cellblocks.

SCORE is divided into two large housing units that hold 400 inmates each. Those units, in turn, are divided into eight sections each with single, double and some four-bunk cells. The capacity of these pods varies from 22-70 inmates.

Female inmates are housed separately. Even if just one woman is in custody at SCORE, she will be segregated from the male population in a separate cell pod.

Inmate security classification on intake at the jail is based on their criminal history, the charge(s) against them, and their behavior,” Bartley continued.

“If you can’t play nice with others, you’ll be kept in a single cell 23 hours a day,” with dietary balanced “blended” meals brought to the cell.

“It’s like pre-school,” she said. “We go back to teach people who never learned the things other people did. For example, if you don’t make your bed, you don’t get breakfast. And it’s a privilege to get a sheet,” which is a suicide hazard for some inmates.

Inmates are allowed outdoor recreation three hours a week, and have access to some television, some magazines, and board games, but checkers is played only with clear pieces for security.

Phone privileges, except those from inmates’ attorneys, are based on an inmate’s security status. Only collect calls are allowed for outgoing calls.

The new jail also has space for programs to help inmates prepare for re-entry into society and plan for community transition.

Sheckler said inmates will not be released in Des Moines except for those sentenced there. The others will be returned to the member cities where they were sentenced for release.

The jail, located at 1801 S. 200th Street, is a joint project of the cities of Burien, Des Moines, Auburn, Federal Way, Renton, SeaTac and Tukwila.

The 164,000 sq. ft., 813-bed facility cost $80.5 million, and will house both male and female prisoners from member cities who’ve committed misdemeanor crimes.

The jail is expected to employ around 120 workers, including corrections officers, medical staff and administrative personnel.

It will begin receiving inmates sometime in mid-September and will be in full operation by mid-October.

After a color guard ceremony performed by various law enforcement officers from the seven cities involved, Auburn Singer/Songwriter Lori Anne Mullins sang the National Anthem. Jail Director Penny Bartley spoke, followed by Des Moines Mayor Bob Sheckler and Auburn Mayor Pete Lewis.

A ribbon-cutting ceremony was also held, officially opening the prison.

Publisher/Editor Scott Schaefer was also on hand (and not in jail…yet), and he took these pics:

Des Moines Mayor Bob Sheckler read a poem written by Edgar Albert Guest entitled “It Couldn’t Be Done,” which he thought was appropriate “due to all the naysayers who said we couldn’t build this facility…”:

Somebody said that it couldn’t be done,
But, he with a chuckle replied
That “maybe it couldn’t,” but he would be one
Who wouldn’t say so till he’d tried.
So he buckled right in with the trace of a grin
On his face. If he worried he hid it.
He started to sing as he tackled the thing
That couldn’t be done, and he did it.

Somebody scoffed: “Oh, you’ll never do that;
At least no one has done it”;
But he took off his coat and he took off his hat,
And the first thing we knew he’d begun it.
With a lift of his chin and a bit of a grin,
Without any doubting or quiddit,
He started to sing as he tackled the thing
That couldn’t be done, and he did it.

There are thousands to tell you it cannot be done,
There are thousands to prophesy failure;
There are thousands to point out to you one by one,
The dangers that wait to assail you.
But just buckle it in with a bit of a grin,
Just take off your coat and go to it;
Just start to sing as you tackle the thing
That “couldn’t be done,” and you’ll do it.

To read our previous coverage of the SCORE Jail, click here.

Makeshift memorial to Mikarah Nasabreo Sanders on Jan. 7, 2010. Photo by Scott Schaefer.

The King County Prosecutor’s Office reports that Matthew Dubois has pleaded guilty in the shooting death of his girlfriend, Mikarah Nasabreo Sanders, which happened on Dec. 31, 2009 in an apartment complex in the 12400 block of Ambaum Blvd. SW in Burien.

As we reported then, Dubois shot Sanders, then shot himself. Initially police believed that there was a shooter on the loose, and they scoured the area searching for a gunman. It wasn’t until later that they realized that Dubois actually shot himself.

Police say that Dubois was upset with something he read on Sanders’ MySpace Page (which is still online) before getting into a fight and shooting her in the head.

Dubois, who was 16 at the time, was charged as an adult, and he pleaded guilty Aug. 26.

The sentence range is 165 to 265 months in prison, and his sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 17 before Judge Cheryl Carey at the Norm Maleng Regional Justice Center in Kent.

According to the City of Burien’s monthly newsletter, a dedication/open house for the new SCORE jail will be held Thursday, Sept. 8, from 2 p.m. – 4 p.m., at its location in Des Moines at 1801 S. 200th Street (map below).

The jail is a joint project of the cities of Burien, Des Moines, Auburn, Federal Way, Renton, SeaTac and Tukwila.

The 164,000 sq. ft., 813-bed facility will house both male and female prisoners from member cities who’ve committed misdemeanor crimes.

It will begin receiving inmates in September and will be in full operation by mid-October.

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Stephen H. Kirk

The King County Prosecutor’s Office announced Friday that Stephen H. Kirk, the prolific burglar responsible for several ‘smash-and-grab’ style robberies targeting businesses last year in Burien and West Seattle, was sentenced to 68 months in prison.

Kirk, a Burien resident, pleaded guilty in March to eight counts of Burglary Second Degree and one count of Attempted Burglary Second Degree.

He was sentenced before Judge Mariane Spearman at the King County Courthouse.

We first reported on this case last July, when we posted info on 13 “smash and grab” burglaries targeting small businesses in the area.

In total, over 30 small businesses in Burien and West Seattle were hit by Kirk last summer; here’s more from an in-depth story by Ralph Nichols that we posted Aug. 22, 2010:

Detective Ignacio Yanez of the Burien Police Department/King County Sheriff’s Office noted the method of operation was always the same – throwing a rock through a glass door or window to gain entry, grabbing a cash drawer or register and once a laptop computer, and getting away.

Each crime was committed in about a minute, making it difficult for both the police and citizens to witness a burglary in progress or see a suspicious person fleeing the scene.

Kirk, 50, who was arrested early the morning of Aug. 11 shortly after another “smash-and-grab” incident in Burien.

He was arraigned in King County Superior Court the following day and bail was set at $150,000.

Workers repair the broken door of B-Town Burgers, a victim a Stephen H. Kirk's 'smash-and-grab' burglaries last summer.

“I might have been the lead detective, but everyone brought a piece of the puzzle to the table,” Yanez said. “It truly was a team effort that helped get this thing done.”

Detectives from the sheriff’s office Street Crimes and Crime Investigation units and patrol officers were brought in to work the case, yet developing firm leads remained elusive. Burien police/KCSO stayed in contact with Seattle police, who were investigating the “smash-and-grab” burglaries in West Seattle.

“I can’t tell you how many different officers kept coming up with different things at different times to say, ‘I got a piece of the puzzle,’” Yanez continued. “Seattle officers, too.”

But the burglar “was super quick and didn’t spend much time inside these businesses. If an officer had not brought another piece of the puzzle in, we wouldn’t have been able to connect the dots.

“We were able to find [the suspect] just because a Burien patrol officer said ‘hey, I remember where I saw this vehicle [with a unique logo] parked just a couple of days ago,’ and everything fell into place.”

At that point, Yanez said, “We found out about the vehicle, who owned it, who he hangs out with, his relatives, and then we started looking at all those places to find it.” McLauchlan called locating the vehicle “quite a concentrated effort” by both Burien and Seattle police.

With that, Yanez added, “We started to follow [the suspect] as well.” Using several surveillance techniques, investigators kept track of him “for a couple of days.” Then he allegedly “pulled off another burglary and we arrested him” a short time later.

According to police reports filed with the court to establish probable cause to file charges, that surveillance helped investigators allegedly place Kirk’s vehicle in the vicinity of the next three “smash-and-grab” burglaries.

Then just before 2 a.m. Aug. 11, a 9-1-1 call was received from a witness who heard an alarm coming from Huff Motorsports at 15821 1st Ave. S. in Burien and saw a man carrying a cash register running from the business.

A detective in the area saw a person matching his description allegedly get into the suspect vehicle and drive away. The vehicle was followed to a location in North Burien, where Kirk was taken into custody without incident and read his Miranda rights.

Calling the “smash-and-grab” burglaries “crimes of opportunity,” McLauchlan said “one of the things we can walk away with is that we need to remind business owners that once their closed signs go up, they need to make it very unattractive for this kind of burglary and in fact for all burglaries.

“Usually a burglar already will have walked by a business a couple of times to see what’s available.” Businesses need to remove all money from the register and leave the cash drawer open after hours so they can see there is nothing convenient to steal.

“It’s not uncommon once we get a bad guy that he’s a serial bad guy,” McLauchlan continued. “One guy can be a crime wave. They cause us the most problems and we make it a priority because they cause so much stress to our community.”

During a series of crimes like the “smash-and-grab” burglaries, “it takes time to connect the dots. If no one else is around it takes time to put that information together” – and that takes a lot longer than it does on television.

To read more of our previous coverage of this crime spree, click here.

Hollie Beston, a Burien woman who videotaped herself and her husband raping her own 4-year-old daughter, was sentenced to 26 years to life in prison by Judge Mariane Spearman on Friday (Feb. 18) in King County Superior Court.

Beston was arrested in October 2009, along with her ex-husband, Brian Beston, 36, by Seattle Police after the FBI learned of the sex crime from the recipient of the photos, a man facing child-molestation charges in Southern California. Her husband was also sentenced in June 2010 to a minimum 26 years in prison.

Charging papers say the two provided live streaming video of the rape of their child over the internet to the California man, who alerted authorities as part of his therapy. Documents also claim that Brian Beston admitted repeatedly raping the girl, and that Hollie Beston admitted taking photos and videos of the crimes.

According to investigators, Beston was offering the girl online to have sex with the California man and streamed the live abuse to prove the authenticity of the offer.

Some other amazingly unpleasant facts we dug up from this story (as we previously reported in October, 2009):

• Police believe the Bestons abused the girl for several months.
• Hollie Beston is also accused of operating the camera and sending the images via a cellphone and the Internet.
• Police searched the Bestons’ homes in Kent and Burien and confiscated computers, cameras, flash drives, cellphones and other electronics, court papers said.
• The child was taken into custody by state Child Protective Services.

We did our own Google search for “Hollie Beston” and found a profile for her (direct link here), which includes some incredibly ironic statements like:

• “I am a fun loving and caring person.”
• “I have a problem with caring for people too much, which leads to people trying to use me.”
• “It is a lot of fun meeting new people but I am careful because I have a young one to take care of.”

Here’s exact wording from her Google Profile, which is still active:

Hollie Beston

Medical Assisting ; Student at Kaplan University
Burien, Washington

Interests:
Traveling, astrology, baking some, reading, swimming, going for walks…

I am a fun loving and caring person. I love to goof off and raising my child. I graduate in August but will be done with classes in the middle of march then plan on continuing my education by going for my RN. I have a problem with caring for people too much, which leads to people trying to use me. I enjoy doing a variety of things and have hopes and dreams that will someday come true. It is a lot of fun meeting new people but I am careful because I have a young one to take care of.

Places I’ve lived
Golden Valley, AZ ; Lenoir, NC; Kent and Burien, WA

KING5.com is reporting that, with just one week left until his scheduled execution for the murder of a Burien woman, Cal Coburn Brown’s filed an emergency motion for a stay of execution to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

As we’ve previously reported, Brown was convicted of torturing and killing Holly Washa, 22, a Burien woman, in 1991, and is scheduled to be executed just after midnight on Friday, Sept. 10th.

The court unanimously ruled in July that Brown’s claims that the state’s execution process is unconstitutional was invalid because of a recent change made by the state Department of Corrections.

Brown was originally scheduled to be put down March 13th at the state Penitentiary at Walla Walla, but Washington State Supreme Court judges voted 5-4 to grant his 11th-hour appeal against the state’s lethal injection system.

If Brown’s execution happens, he will be the first King County prisoner put to death since 1993, with the state of Washington reinstated the death penalty.

KING5 reports that the state Attorney General’s Office says Brown’s emergency motion, filed Thursday, argues that the team that will conduct the lethal injection is “unqualified.” The AG’s office says Brown wants the stay until a more thorough investigation of the team’s qualifications and experience.

Read KING5′s full story here.

The state Supreme Court has lifted a stay of execution for Cal Coburn Brown, who was convicted of torturing and killing Holly Washa, 22, a Burien woman, in 1991.

He could be executed as early as September for Washa’s murder.

The court unanimously ruled Thursday (July 29) that Brown’s claims that the state’s execution process is unconstitutional was invalid because of a recent change made by the state Department of Corrections.

Brown carjacked Washa, then held her against her will for two days in a SeaTac motel, raping and torturing her before slashing her throat and leaving her body in the trunk of her car.

Brown was scheduled to be put down March 13th at the state Penitentiary at Walla Walla, but Washington State Supreme Court judges voted 5-4 to grant his 11th-hour appeal against the state’s lethal injection system.

If Brown’s execution happens, he will be the first King County prisoner put to death since 1993, with the state of Washington reinstated the death penalty.

PREVIOUS COVERAGE:

• Burien Woman’s Killer Granted Stay Of Execution
• Dead Man Walking Has A Bad Burien Connection

On Tuesday (Nov. 17th), Leemah Carneh, the man accused of murdering an elderly couple and two teens at a Des Moines home in 2001, pleaded guilty to murder.

Carneh, 28, pleaded guilty to four counts of aggravated first-degree murder with a firearm for the brutal killings. These charges carry a mandatory life sentence, which King County Superior Court Judge Palmer Robinson imposed following the plea.

Carneh, who was 19 at the time, is accused of killing Richard and Jane Larson, 63 and 64, their grandson Taelor Marks, 17, and his 17-year-old girlfriend, Josie Peterson, in the Larsons’ home in March 2001. Peterson was a cheerleader at Evergreen High School when she was killed.

As we reported previously, Judge Robinson, following a competency hearing that took place over several weeks, ruled in August that Carneh was mentally fit to stand trial. He was diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic not long after his arrest.

Carneh was arraigned on the four counts of aggravated first-degree murder immediately following Robinson’s ruling.

According to police investigators, Carneh allegedly gunned down Marks’ grandparents, hid their bodies, then waited inside the house for Peterson and Marks and brutally beat them in an ambush when they came home. King County prosecutors allege that Carneh was obsessed with Peterson, who didn’t know him.

He was arrested at his home two days after the killings. When police searched Carneh’s house after the killings they found a photo of Peterson, a ring belonging to Marks, luggage with the Larson’s name on it, a stereo from Marks’ car, a handgun – and bloody clothes.

Despite this evidence, criminal proceedings were delayed while Carneh was treated for his mental condition at Western State Hospital. On several occasions, he was returned to the King County Jail only to be sent back to the hospital when it was determined he still was not mentally competent to participate in his defense.

After prosecutors decided not to seek the death penalty, Carneh will now face life in prison without the possibility of parole. In late 2005, he received a civil commitment to Western State when another superior court judge ruled he still was not competent to stand trial but under state law no longer could be held on the criminal charges.

One year later, prosecutors were notified by officials at Western State that Carneh’s mental condition has improved to the point that he no longer needed constant supervision. They also said he was eligible to earn permission to leave the hospital grounds. At that point, prosecutors re-filed the murder charges and requested a new competency hearing for Carneh. But it took another two and a half years with a new treatment regime before he was finally found fit to stand trial.

Shortly before the original murder charges against Carneh were dismissed, Taelor’s mother Lorraine Marks said, “It’s unbelievable to me. He wrote the book on how to commit murder and get away with it…. I’m furious with the system.”

When the charges against Mr. Carneh were dismissed in 2005 and he was sent from the King County Jail back to the mental treatment facility, prosecutors said it was unlikely, even if he never went to trial for the murders, that he ever would ever be free again.

But late last year, prosecutors learned the defendant had made enough improvement to be unsupervised and perhaps even leave the grounds of the institution.

 At that point, they re-filed the charges of aggravated first-degree murder against him.

 Yet now, he again has been found mentally unfit. Western State staff believe additional treatment alternatives can help Mr. Carneh become competent so he finally can stand trial.