2 charged in woodpile killing

Two men are facing murder charges in the death of a man found last year in a south Spokane County woodpile with his feet bound by jumper cables.

Theodore M. Kosewicz, 38, and Levoy Goff Burnham, 37, are being held in the Spokane County Jail on $1 million bond each. Court documents allege the murder occurred sometime in June 2005.

A family cutting firewood from a slash pile near Fairfield in January 2006 found a decomposed body at the bottom later identified as 25-year-old Sebastian L. Esquibel, of Spokane.

Sheriff’s investigators interviewed several witnesses to the crime and other informants last year, who said that Esquibel was severely beaten because he stole $800 that was going to be used to buy methamphetamine.

Sometime in late May, Esquibel was taken to a fifth-wheel trailer three blocks north of Rogers High School, according to witness statements in the court documents. There, he was stripped to his underwear and severely beaten as Burnham tried to find the cash, documents say. One woman, Amber Johnson, spoke with investigators and told them that she drove the suspects and a bound, beaten Esquibel in a 1991 Ford Aerostar van, according to court documents.

The van made a few stops in Spokane where Burnham looked for the money, but eventually the drive went south near Fairfield, where Johnson said she parked the van on a remote dirt road. Burnham and Kosewicz left the van with Esquibel, and moments later, she said, she heard a gunshot. Burnham and Kosewicz returned to the van alone, Johnson said.

Later that day Kosewicz had the carpet changed in the van, she said.

Kosewicz and Burnham were both being held at other correctional facilities for other crimes and were transferred to the Spokane County Jail. Both made first appearances before a judge Friday afternoon.