Man guilty of manslaughter, not murder for stabbing victim 200 times
After killing Barzilai, Lakey covered the body and spent hours in the man's apartment talking on a telephone chat line, watching porn videos and stealing many of his belongings,
Conviction in fatal stabbing
Jury finds man guilty of manslaughter, not murder
By TRACY JOHNSON
P-I REPORTER
seattlepi.nwsource.com
A man who stabbed a Microsoft Corp. program manager more than 200 times while high on methamphetamine was found guilty of manslaughter Tuesday when a King County jury couldn't agree to call it murder.
A few jurors believed Ronald Lakey was too intoxicated to actually intend to kill David Barzilai four years ago in Barzilai's Belltown apartment, one juror said later, so they settled on the less-serious charge.
The juror, who did not want his name made public, said the decision was "extremely hard" and that jurors believed Lakey would take back that night if he could.
Though disappointed, King County prosecutors were relieved the jury agreed the crime involved "deliberate cruelty" -- something that will let them ask for a longer prison term than the 14 to 17 years Lakey faces.
"It was a little perplexing that someone could be deliberately cruel without being able to deliberately kill someone -- but that finding will allow us to ask for a sentence that will help us protect society from him," Deputy Prosecutor Jimmy Hung said. "It's hard to imagine anything more cruel than what happened to David."
Lakey's attorney, C. Wesley Richards, said he was "pleased that they came back with manslaughter, given his mental state at the time."
In Lakey's three-week trial, Richards told jurors Lakey killed Barzilai, a 25-year-old man he met on an Internet Web site for gay men, in a state of delirium caused by injecting meth.
"He didn't know why he was stabbing Mr. Barzilai," Richards told jurors. "Mr. Lakey clearly had to be out of his mind."
Crying on the witness stand, a tearful Lakey, 36, said he couldn't explain why he suddenly began stabbing Barzilai after they'd been intimate in Jan. 4, 2002 -- or why he cut off the man's hand.
"To make sense out of it, it looks like rage ... (but) I don't recall any emotion," Lakey told jurors. "I had the knife in my hand, and I didn't stop."
Deputy Prosecutor Don Raz argued that a half-gram packet of meth did not attack Barzilai -- Lakey did, and so brutally that he obviously meant to kill.
Barzilai's parents and brother declined to discuss the verdict but thanked prosecutors, Seattle police and their victims' advocate in a statement read by their attorney, Jay Krulewitch. "No words can express the depth of our loss," they said. "David will never return to us."
Lakey's friend, Lynn Slowinski, who worked with him at the Bon Marche, said it was " a horrible, horrible situation for both sides." She said Lakey, who's been in jail for four years, "feels terrible, doesn't understand it, and he's doing the best he can."
After killing Barzilai, Lakey covered the body and spent hours in the man's apartment talking on a telephone chat line, watching porn videos and stealing many of his belongings, police said.
He then got in Barzilai's car, headed south and turned himself in to Kelso police, telling them he'd stolen the car but eventually confessing he'd killed someone.
Jurors Tuesday also found Lakey guilty of first-degree burglary and two theft charges for his crimes against Barzilai, along with stealing the car.
P-I reporter Tracy Johnson can be reached at 206-467-5942 or tracyjohnson@seattlepi.com. |
