Man gets 10 years for role in slaying

EVERETT – A 23-year-old man who did nothing to help Rachel Burkheimer when she was tied up, beaten and killed by his friends has been sentenced to nearly 10 years in prison.

Prosecutors originally charged Jeff Barth, of Everett, with first-degree murder, conspiracy and kidnapping in the September 2002 abduction and killing of 18-year-old Burkheimer.

He faced a minimum 25 years in prison if he had been convicted of the original charge. But prosecutors agreed to drop the murder and conspiracy charges after Barth pleaded guilty to the kidnapping charge and offered to testify against his co-defendants.

With credit for time served and time off for good behavior, Barth could be free in less than eight years.

At his sentencing in Snohomish County Superior Court on Friday, Barth apologized to Burkheimer’s family.

“I have to live knowing I could have stopped what happened,” he said.

Burkheimer’s mother, Denise Webber, of Marysville, told him it was too late for apologies and asked him to imagine her daughter’s horror in the hours before her killing.

“You could have done the brave thing, the right thing, to get her out of there,” she said.

Barth took the stand at the murder trials of Yusef “Kevin” Jihad, John Anderson and John Whitaker.

He told juries that Burkheimer, 18, was killed because his co-defendants, members of an Everett-based gang that called itself the Northwest Mafia, viewed her as a threat.

Jihad, Anderson and Whitaker all were convicted and are now serving lengthy prison sentences.

Cooperation aside, Barth played a role in what happened to Burkheimer and deserved to be punished, deputy prosecutor Julie Mohr said.

Barth’s attorney, John Henry Browne, urged Judge James Allendoerfer to depart from state sentencing guidelines and give his client five years in prison, arguing that the truth about Burkheimer’s killing might never have been known had Barth not testified.

Allendoerfer said it was clear Barth knew about plans to kidnap Burkheimer and stood by doing nothing, and noted that testimony indicated Barth joined in taunting and humiliating her while she was tied up in the garage.

Two other men who entered guilty pleas in Burkheimer’s slaying – Maurice Rivas, 20, of Lynnwood, and Tony Williams, 22, of Everett – are scheduled to be sentenced Wednesday.