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Atif Rafay
and Sebastian Burns
set up by the Mounties
on a million dollar contract from the Bellevue police
Prosecutor
James Konat: A win-at-all-costs kinda guy
- Trial begins in '94
slayings
- Prosecutors show jury
hazy video confession
-
- By TRACY JOHNSON, SEATTLE
POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER, November 25, 2003
Sprawled on a couch, Sebastian
Burns casually explained that he killed the parents and sister
of his best friend, Atif Rafay, one at a time before showering
off their blood and making sure the baseball bat he used was
"long gone."
Rafay, sipping from a bottle
of beer in the hazy video footage, talked about feeling "pretty
rotten" about his role in the slayings but calling them
"a necessary sacrifice."
Yesterday, parts of their secretly
videotaped conversations were a King County jury's blunt introduction
to the murder case against the two young men, now on trial for
the Bellevue family's slayings in July 1994.
Rafay and Burns are accused
of bludgeoning Rafay's parents, Tariq and Sultana, both 56, and
his mentally disabled sister, Basma, 20, just months after the
family had moved from Vancouver, B.C., to Bellevue's Somerset
neighborhood.
Prosecutors contend the men,
both Canadian citizens who were 18 at the time, arrogantly believed
they could outsmart police with a "perfect murder"
and sought about $350,000 in life-insurance proceeds.
Defense attorneys, however,
say Rafay and Burns couldn't have done it -- they were seen elsewhere
when two different neighbors heard the fatal blows, and evidence
found in the house points to others.
Burns' attorney, Song Richardson,
told jurors that the men gave false confessions because undercover
Canadian officers convinced them that they would be arrested
or even killed if they didn't.
The trial is expected to last
through April. Opening statements began yesterday in the case
that has endured numerous twists, from fueling international
debate over capital punishment to a sex scandal involving Burns
and a former lawyer. If convicted, Rafay, 27, and Burns, 28,
would spend the rest of their lives behind bars.
Yesterday, deputy prosecutor
Roger Davidheiser told jurors they would "see and hear the
defendants describe, in chilling detail, why and how they killed
each member of the Rafay family ... and in sickening detail,
how it felt."
Jurors watched the snippets
of videotape, which Canadian police recorded in an elaborate
1995 investigation that involved undercover officers befriending
the pair and pretending to be powerful crime lords.
In the tape, Burns called the
killings "more nerve-racking than we expected," but
said he was "a lot happier than if it didn't happen."
With a chuckle, he said Basma Rafay "was standing up and
walking around or whatever" -- calling it "a curious
episode."
The young woman, who was autistic
and unable to speak, frantically tried to fight and get away
from her killer, according to Davidheiser. Still alive when police
found her in her room, she died within hours.
Rafay said he "just didn't
have the nerve" to help Burns bludgeon his family, so he
stood around, then "yanked out a VCR" in what police
say was an effort to make the crime look like a robbery.
"In general, I was pretty
freaked out by what I saw," Rafay said.
Davidheiser said Burns' hair
along with Tariq Rafay's diluted blood was found in a shower
in the Rafay family home. He also said the pair told a friend
about their plan to make sure they were seen at a restaurant
and a movie that night.
Police contend the pair sneaked
out of the movie to commit the crime.
But Richardson told jurors
that Burns and Rafay didn't kill the family because they couldn't
possibly be two places at once.
Neighbors were certain they
heard pounding noises coming from the Rafay house no later than
10 or 10:15 p.m. Rafay and Burns were seen at the theater around
10 watching "The Lion King," and Richardson said no
one saw them leave.
She said plenty of evidence
showed someone else killed the Rafay family: A mystery fingerprint
on the shower door. A bloody shoe mark in the garage that didn't
match either teen's shoes. An unidentified hair found near Tariq
Rafay's body.
Canadian police even got a
tip from a secret informant who had allegedly heard about a $20,000
contract to kill an East Indian family in Bellevue several days
before the Rafays were slain. The caller suggested a convicted
criminal was involved.
Richardson urged jurors to
carefully consider the supposed confessions that Burns and Rafay
gave to undercover officers, contending they were scared teenagers
who were intimidated and threatened.
Burns was convinced that Bellevue
police were "trumping up a case against him," she said.
The undercover detectives, pretending to be ruthless crime lords,
said they would help him destroy any evidence against him if
he admitted to the slayings.
They even went so far as to
convince Burns that if he got arrested, they would have him killed
to make sure he didn't rat out their crime organization to police,
Richardson said.
"So Sebastian did his
best to convincingly confess to a crime that he didn't commit
in order to survive," she told jurors.
She said Rafay's and Burns'
supposed confessions were conspicuously vague and "don't
mach the physical evidence" found in the Rafay home, such
as signs that "multiple people" were in Tariq Rafay's
bedroom when he was killed.
Nearly 10 years have passed
since the slayings stunned Bellevue neighbors and the Muslim
community in Vancouver, where the family had lived for years
after the parents emigrated from Pakistan.
It was Burns who called 911
early July 13, 1994.
He and Rafay, both considered
exceptionally intelligent teens who had just finished their first
year in college, told police they'd been staying with Rafay's
parents and came back to find them dead.
They answered questions, gave
fingerprints and let investigators examine their clothes and
shoes. Two days later, while prayers were being said over the
three coffins at a mosque in North Seattle, Rafay and Burns were
on a bus back to Vancouver.
Police worked to solve the
slayings as the teens lived in Canada. They wanted a DNA sample
from Burns but couldn't force him to give one, leaving investigators
to snatch a napkin that he had blown his nose on and discarded.
Royal Canadian Mounted Police
embarked on its secret investigation using techniques that aren't
generally legal in the United States, such as bugging the teens'
home, phones and cars.
Burns and Rafay were arrested
in the summer of 1995, but their extradition took nearly six
years in battle over the death penalty.
Canada abolished capital punishment
in 1976 and wouldn't hand over two of its citizens if they might
face execution.
After numerous appeals, Canada's
highest court essentially forced King County Prosecutor Norm
Maleng to promise he would not seek execution before sending
the pair back here.
Burns and Rafay have remained
in the King County Jail since March 2001, waiting for trial for
nearly three years that have been far from uneventful.
A judge appointed new public
defenders for Rafay after he couldn't get along with his original
ones, and Burns was given new lawyers after he and lawyer Theresa
Olson were caught in a sexual encounter in a small interview
room at the jail.
Then earlier this year, Superior
Court Judge Charles Mertel heard months of testimony to decide
whether the jury should be able to hear what Rafay and Burns
told the undercover Canadian detectives, eventually finding the
evidence admissible.
P-I reporter Tracy Johnson
can be reached at 206-467-5942 or tracyjohnson@seattlepi.com
- Rafay defense plays up family harmony
- Police theory of
slayings is attacked on trial's 2nd day
By TRACY JOHNSON, SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER,
November 26, 2003
Atif Rafay's father gave him
intellectual guidance, helping him become the brilliant young
man who was valedictorian of his high school class.
His older sister was mentally
disabled, losing her ability to speak when Rafay was young, and
his mother was dedicated and nurturing to both of them.
"They were the only family
he had," Rafay's attorney, Veronica Freitas, told a King
County Superior Court jury yesterday. "They were the family
for whom he was not allowed to grieve."
Rafay's parents and sister
were beaten to death in their Bellevue home in July 1994, and
now Rafay and his best friend, Sebastian Burns, are on trial
for the killings.
King County prosecutors contend
the pair, both Canadian citizens who were 18 at the time, hoped
to collect life-insurance money and make a movie that would earn
millions.
The young men later bragged
about the baseball-bat beatings to undercover Canadian investigators
and a close friend, a deputy prosecutor told jurors earlier this
week.
But in her opening statement
yesterday, Freitas said Rafay was dependent on his family --
they gave him food and shelter and made it possible for him to
attend Cornell University.
Just after the killings, Rafay
told police that "they were the most supportive family in
the world. They helped me out. Now I have nothing."
Freitas told jurors Bellevue
police immediately decided Rafay and Burns were the killers and
twisted everything they did -- including their decision to head
back to Vancouver, B.C. -- to reinforce that idea.
She said evidence showed someone
else committed the crime, maybe an assassin hired by a Canadian
crime family.
An informant told Canadian
police of hearing about an alleged murder-for-hire plot shortly
after the slayings.
Freitas said Rafay's father
was likely the main target -- his face was beaten far more brutally
than what it would have taken to end his life.
Rafay and Burns told police
they had been out all evening and returned at 2 a.m. on July
13, 1994, to the family's split-level home.
Sultana Rafay, 56, was dead
in the family room, and Tariq Rafay, also 56, had been bludgeoned
in his bed as he slept.
Basma Rafay, 20, was moaning
in her bedroom, and her brother didn't try to help her..
Freitas told jurors Atif Rafay
was stunned and couldn't bring himself to go in there.
They weren't charged with the
slayings until the following summer in Canada, after an elaborate
undercover investigation by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
Defense attorneys contend the
confessions that the pair gave the undercover officers -- who
had spent months posing as high-rolling criminals -- were the
result of fear and intimidation.
Prosecutors, however, say the
secretly videotaped admissions show the teens unquestionably
killed the family, figuring they could outsmart police, and that
they felt very little remorse.
The trial, which began Monday,
is expected to last through April. If convicted, Rafay and Burns,
who are now in their late 20s, would go to prison for life.
P-I reporter Tracy Johnson
can be reached at 206-467-5942 or tracyjohnson@seattlepi.com
Juror removed from Burns-Rafay
triple-slaying case
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
NEWS SERVICES, April 16, 2004
A King County Superior Court
judge has removed a juror from the triple-murder trial of Sebastian
Burns and Atif Rafay for alleged misconduct, prompting motions
for a mistrial from defense attorneys.
The expulsion Wednesday came
after a juror sent Judge Charles Mertel a note saying juror No.
4, a woman in her 40s, allegedly said, "I'll do whatever
is necessary to get off this (expletive) trial."
In open court but with the
other jurors removed, Mertel asked the woman about her comments.
She denied the statement but said she might have said, "I
wanted to go home."
Rafay and Burns are accused
of aggravated murder in the 1994 bludgeoning deaths of Rafay's
parents, and sister.
- Man denies killing Rafays
- Burns tells jurors he
feared for his life, so he made up story
By TRACY JOHNSON, SEATTLE
POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER, May 12, 2004
Sebastian Burns told the jurors
who will decide his fate that he had nothing to do with the brutal
slaying of his best friend's family in Bellevue 10 years ago
-- but that he pretended he did because he was scared he would
end up dead himself.
Admittedly nervous on the witness
stand yesterday, Burns said he gave a phony confession to two
undercover Canadian police officers who were posing as dangerous
criminals because he thought it was what they wanted to hear.
So when they asked him, he
said, he never denied killing Atif Rafay's family.
"The risk seemed almost
pointless," Burns told jurors in King County Superior Court,
"and it seemed to us the best and safest thing would be
to play along."
Burns and Rafay, both 28, are
charged with three counts of aggravated murder for the July 1994
deaths of Rafay's parents, Tariq and Sultana, both 56, and his
autistic sister, Basma, 20. All were bludgeoned in their home
in the Somerset neighborhood.
King County prosecutors contend
that Rafay and Burns, both Canadian citizens who were 18 at the
time, wanted to get their hands on roughly $350,000 in life-insurance
proceeds and believed they could outsmart police with a "perfect
murder."
Jurors already have heard the
testimony of the pair's close friend, Jimmy Miyoshi, who said
Rafay and Burns carefully planned the crime and told him about
it afterward.
Rafay's attorneys said they
haven't decided whether Rafay will testify in the trial, which
began nearly six months ago and could wrap up within weeks.
Yesterday, Burns was talkative
and articulate, though he occasionally faltered. "My apologies,"
he said more than once when asking his attorney, Jeff Robinson,
to repeat a question. He acknowledged being afraid that he might
not "speak well" after spending nine years in the unsociable
setting of jail.
He told jurors that he had
become afraid of the Canadian police officers who befriended
him in a long 1995 undercover operation. The officers, posing
as high-rolling criminals, began soliciting his help in staged
crimes such as laundering money and stealing a car.
One of the men told Burns he
had killed someone before, and Burns said he made up his mind
that he "was simply never, ever going to cross him."
Eventually, he told the two
men he didn't want to be involved in their criminal activity
anymore, and Burns said it didn't go over well.
Burns said the men seemed worried
that he would turn them in to police, and that at one point,
they stared hard at each other for a long time while Burns watched
in alarm.
"I thought they were deciding
right then whether they were going to kill me," Burns testified.
The two undercover officers
began pressuring him to give details about the Rafay killings,
saying they could help him destroy evidence. Burns said he feared
they would have him killed if he didn't, believing they were
worried he would rat out their supposed crime organization to
police if he were arrested.
Burns said he and Rafay agreed
to "confess" to these supposed criminals, but that
he was forced to be evasive because he knew only what he had
heard and read in the newspapers about the slayings. Burns said
one of the undercover officers "wanted me to give him an
A-to-Z story about the crime so he could sabotage the evidence.
I didn't have an A-to-Z story because I didn't do it."
Prosecutors may cross-examine
Burns today or tomorrow.
They contend that Burns beat
all three members of the Rafay family with a baseball bat while
Rafay tried to make the house look as if it had been robbed.
Investigators found Burns' hair in a shower with Tariq Rafay's
diluted blood.
Burns called police early July
13, 1994, and said he and Atif Rafay had come home to find the
bloody scene.
But in past months, jurors
have seen footage of Burns and Rafay casually talking about killing
the Rafay family. Canadian officers secretly bugged their house
and cars, and they videotaped some of their meetings with the
undercover officers.
In the video footage, Burns
called the killings "more nerve-racking than we expected,"
but said he was "a lot happier than if it didn't happen."
Rafay told the undercover officers he "just didn't have
the nerve" to help Burns bludgeon his family and "was
pretty freaked out" by what he saw.
The pair told police they went
out for dinner and a movie that night. They were seen at more
than one restaurant and a Bellevue showing of "The Lion
King." Prosecutors contend the pair made sure they were
seen, then crept out of the darkened theater to commit the crimes.
Rafay and Burns returned to
Canada within days of the slayings. They were arrested the following
year, though a battle over their extradition lasted several years.
The case has endured many twists,
from fueling debate about capital punishment to a sex scandal
involving Burns and a former lawyer. If convicted, Rafay and
Burns would be sentenced to life in prison.
P-I reporter Tracy Johnson
can be reached at 206-467-5942 or tracyjohnson@seattlepi.com.
- Burns testifies about
money at his triple-murder trial
- Rafay co-defendant
says he knew about insurance policy
TRACY JOHNSON, SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
REPORTER, May 14, 2004
On the witness stand in his
triple-murder trial, Sebastian Burns was cross-examined yesterday
about the victims' life-insurance money, his distrust of police
and his past claim that he had "no use for people of less
intelligence" than himself.
Burns, 28, acknowledged knowing
that his friend, Atif Rafay, received some life-insurance money
after the 1994 slayings of Rafay's family and could get $225,000
more, which could help their plans to make a feature film called
"The Great Despisers."
He also acknowledged that some
of the money went toward buying them a fancy new car.
But in his second day of testimony,
Burns continued to reiterate -- often without being asked --
that he was not involved in killing Rafay's family.
Burns and Rafay are charged
in the bludgeoning death of Rafay's parents, Tariq and Sultana,
and his developmentally disabled sister, Basma, 20, in their
Somerset-neighborhood home.
Prosecutors contend that the
young men, both 18 at the time, wanted to get their hands on
more than $300,000 in life-insurance proceeds. They say the young
men, both highly intelligent, were arrogantly convinced that
they could kill Rafay's family without getting caught.
Yesterday, Burns acknowledged
once telling an undercover police officer that he and Rafay were
"among the smartest people in the world" and that he
has no use for people who aren't.
He called it merely "a
fun thing to say."
"I do remember boasting
how smart I was, and how smart my friends were," Burns said.
"I did have a lot of arrogant attitudes back then."
Deputy prosecutor Roger Davidheiser
questioned Burns extensively about his friendship with a key
prosecution witness, Jimmy Miyoshi.
Miyoshi has testified that
Rafay and Burns talked about the slayings before and after Rafay's
family was killed and said that they carefully planned an alibi.
Burns acknowledged that he
talked to Miyoshi often, including the day before the slayings,
and that he was a very good friend.
He once even remarked that
Rafay and Miyoshi were such close friends that "if they
were girls, I'd marry them."
But he also said that while
he once trusted Miyoshi implicitly, he "never anticipated
that anybody was going to give false testimony against us."
Burns and Rafay were arrested
in 1995, after they confessed to the slayings to two undercover
Canadian police officers who were posing as dangerous, high-rolling
criminals.
On the witness stand, Burns
has maintained that the officers intimidated them into admitting
to a crime they didn't commit.
Burns also told jurors he was
concerned that police might fabricate evidence against him, and
he acknowledged thinking that police might have bugged the phone
in the motel room where he and Rafay were staying right after
the slayings.
Davidheiser wanted to know
why Burns, as merely a witness to a crime, would be so worried
about the police.
Burns said the idea that the
phone was tapped came from his father, who told him to make all
of his calls from a pay phone.
Rafay is not expected to take
the witness stand in the trial, which could wrap up next week
in King County Superior Court.
Burns' testimony will continue
today.
Wearing a blue shirt and tie
yesterday, he was calm as he addressed the jury, though he occasionally
appeared flustered as he tried to answer questions precisely
or find the right words.
He repeatedly denied Davidheiser's
suggestions that he was making up a story about being innocent
and giving a phony confession, saying repeatedly: "It's
the truth."
The deputy prosecutor and defendant
did agree on one thing:
"These were horrendous
murders, wouldn't you agree, sir?" Davidheiser asked.
Burns replied: "Absolutely."
P-I reporter Tracy Johnson
can be reached at 206-467-5942 or tracyjohnson@seattlepi.com
- Rafay killings called
'an inside job'
- Prosecution says pair
'systematically executed' family
By TRACY JOHNSON, SEATTLE
POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER, May 19, 2004
The people who bludgeoned three
members of a family nearly 10 years ago were obviously familiar
with the family's Bellevue home and comfortable enough to stay
and shower off the blood, a deputy prosecutor told jurors yesterday.
The killers also knew that
as they beat to death Sultana and Tariq Rafay, he said, the couple's
severely autistic daughter wouldn't be able to call 911.
King County deputy prosecutor
James Konat said the slayings were not, as defense attorneys
have suggested, the work of a hit man, robbers or some group
who opposed the Rafays' religious views.
"This," Konat told
jurors, "is what we call in the business 'an inside job.'
"
Closing arguments began yesterday
in the trial of Atif Rafay and Sebastian Burns, who are charged
with killing Rafay's parents and his developmentally disabled
sister, Basma, 20, in July 1994.
Prosecutors began summing up
the evidence they've presented since the trial began nearly six
months ago, from what they contend was a phony alibi to the confessions
Rafay and Burns gave undercover Canadian police.
Konat said the pair "systematically
executed" the family knowing Rafay stood to inherit assets
worth roughly $500,000 as the only heir.
Attorneys for Rafay and Burns
will give their closing arguments today and tomorrow, and jurors
could begin deliberations Friday.
Defense attorneys have said
Rafay and Burns merely discovered the brutal crime early July
13, 1994, and were later intimidated into giving false confessions.
They contend that there was
strong evidence that someone else killed the family, including
a mystery fingerprint, an unidentified bloody shoe mark and evidence
that Tariq Rafay had religious enemies because of his controversial
beliefs.
But yesterday, Konat told jurors
that only Atif Rafay and Burns could have pulled it off.
He said they knew Rafay's father
already would be asleep when they lured his mother downstairs
and that the woman -- who had no reason to fear her own son and
his best friend -- was killed first.
He said Rafay's father was
next, beaten by someone who clearly knew the layout of the family
home even though most of the lights were off, then Rafay's sister
was attacked in her room.
Drawing objections from the
defense, Konat told jurors that what Rafay and Burns did to Rafay's
family was worse than the recent beheading of an American in
Iraq. Rafay's attorney, Marc Stenchever, called the remark a
"blatant emotional plea to the jury" -- and one made
worse by the fact that Rafay is Pakistani. He asked for a mistrial,
though Judge Charles Mertel denied it.
Burns and Rafay told police
they were at a movie the night the killings occurred, but prosecutors
contend that the pair crept out of the theater to commit the
crime. They returned to the Rafay home later and called 911.
- According to Konat, they didn't
act like two young men who had stumbled into a horrific crime.
Rafay didn't try to find out whether his mother was still alive
when he saw her lying on the floor, Konat said, nor did he immediately
run to check on his father.
-
-
- Rafay was 'somewhere
else'
- Teens were seen at theater
at time of killings, defense stresses
By TRACY JOHNSON, SEATTLE
POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER, May 20, 2004
Two different people recalled
hearing pounding noises coming from a house where a Bellevue
family was bludgeoned at the same time that Atif Rafay and Sebastian
Burns, now on trial for the crime, were seen at a movie theater.
That, Rafay's lawyer said yesterday,
is all jurors need to know to find that the young men did not
kill Rafay's parents and older sister in July 1994.
"Don't ignore evidence
that Atif Rafay is innocent and was somewhere else when his family
was slaughtered," attorney Marc Stenchever urged the King
County Superior Court jury in his closing argument.
One of Burns' attorneys is
expected to sum up his case today, and jurors are expected to
begin deliberations in the triple aggravated-murder case tomorrow.
King County prosecutors contend
Rafay and Burns created an alibi July 12, 1994, making sure they
were seen at a 9:50 p.m. showing of "The Lion King"
before sneaking out and beating Rafay's parents, Tariq and Sultana,
and his sister, Basma, 20, with a baseball bat to get inheritance
money.
Prosecutors have suggested
that the two witnesses were mistaken about the timing of the
noises or heard something other than the slayings.
They say Rafay and Burns, both
18 at the time, bragged to a close friend and two undercover
Canadian police officers about leaving the movie to commit the
crime. The two fled to Canada after the slayings.
But yesterday, Stenchever said
two of the Rafay family's neighbors gave clear, detailed descriptions
of the odd hammerlike sounds coming from the Rafay home before
10 p.m. One neighbor testified it sounded as if someone was hanging
pictures and put a gash in a wall, which is exactly what police
found near Rafay's mortally wounded sister.
Stenchever emphasized that
Rafay and Burns were still at the movie at 10 o'clock. That's
about the time the curtain malfunctioned, failing to reopen after
the previews, according to witnesses, and it was Burns who reported
the problem to the manager.
Stenchever also argued that
police centered their investigation on Rafay and Burns, refusing
to follow tips that might lead elsewhere, and said that prosecutors
built a case on speculation and piles of "meaningless evidence."
He urged jurors to consider
that the supposed confessions that each young man gave to undercover
Canadian police officers in 1995 didn't match each other or the
physical evidence found in the house.
He also pointed to the horrific
violence of the slayings, particularly in the death of Tariq
Rafay, and suggested it was more likely some kind of hate crime.
Jurors have heard that the man's religious views may have angered
other Muslims, and they've seen disturbing pictures of the man's
badly beaten body.
"Does he look like he
was killed by a teenager who wants his inheritance?" Stenchever
asked. "That was the work of someone who was trying to send
a message."
Jurors to begin deliberations
in Rafay killings
By TRACY JOHNSON, SEATTLE
POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER, May 21, 2004
A jury will begin deliberations
this morning in the 1994 killing of a Bellevue family after hearing
almost six months of fiercely disputed testimony about an alibi,
forensic evidence and an undercover investigation designed to
snare the two suspects.
In his closing argument yesterday,
defense attorney Jeff Robinson said jurors simply could not convict
Atif Rafay and Sebastian Burns of killing Rafay's family because
too much evidence -- from traces of unidentified DNA to an informant's
tip about a planned "contract killing" -- points elsewhere.
"How many times does the
evidence have to tell us that it's not Sebastian, and it's not
Atif, before we listen?" Robinson, who is defending Burns,
asked the King County Superior Court jury.
Rafay and Burns would spend
the rest of their lives in prison if convicted of aggravated
murder in the beating deaths of Rafay's parents, Tariq and Sultana,
and his developmentally disabled sister, Basma, 20, in their
Somerset-neighborhood home.
Prosecutors contend Burns used
a baseball bat to kill each person on July 12, 1994, as Rafay,
his best friend, moved things around to fake a robbery. Both
men were 18 when the slayings occurred and told police they'd
been at a movie.
In past months, jurors have
had the rare opportunity to see and hear the men discuss and
even admit to the slayings in both video footage and audio recordings,
which were captured in 1995 by undercover Canadian police officers
who were posing as high-rolling criminals.
But Robinson urged the jurors
to consider the officers' tactics. He said they used intimidation
and lies to convince Burns he'd end up either in jail or dead
if he didn't start telling them what they wanted to hear.
"And that's how he ended
up on a couch, sipping beer and claiming responsibility for something
he did not do," Robinson said.
He told jurors that blood evidence
revealed that at least three people committed the slayings with
at least two weapons, which doesn't even remotely fit with prosecutors'
theory that Burns was armed only with a bat and swung it alone.
"The truth is, we still
don't know who committed these murders," Robinson said.
Deputy prosecutor James Konat,
however, told jurors that finding the pair guilty "might
be one of the easiest decisions you've made in a long, long time."
He asked them to recall video
footage of Burns explaining that Basma Rafay was "standing
up and walking around" as he was trying to kill her, requiring
more "bat work" -- though Burns contends he said "effort"
-- than the other two victims.
Konat said the fact that the
young woman tried desperately to get away -- shown by the blood
and broken wallboard in her bedroom -- is something only her
killer would know.
But he said it was even more
telling that Atif Rafay, whose own sister was the topic of the
secretly videotaped discussion, joined Burns in chuckling about
it.
"There is simply no way
to explain the way they acted," Konat said. "It is
truly gut-wrenching to listen to those confessions and how they
laughed" about the killings.
P-I reporter Tracy Johnson
can be reached at 206-467-5942 or tracyjohnson@seattlepi.com
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