Teen Found Guilty In Suffocation Deaths Walla Walla Jury Took 7 Hours To Find Boy Guilty Of Killing Sister, Friend

Daniel Betournay stared straight ahead, showing no emotion as a judge read the verdict convicting him of first-degree murder in the suffocation deaths of his sister and her best friend.

Walla Walla County Superior Court jurors deliberated seven hours before reaching their decision Wednesday after a 6-1/2-day trial.

Betournay, 15, of College Place, faces up to 52 years in prison for the Dec. 14, 1994, deaths of his sister, April, and Beth Garbe, both 14. His sentencing was not immediately scheduled.

Betournay had confessed to binding the girls’ wrists and ankles with duct tape before sealing plastic bags over their heads. But his defense contended a mental illness made him incapable of premeditating the slayings.

Premeditation and intent to kill are the key elements needed for a firstdegree murder conviction.

Betournay’s parents and the Garbe family refused to comment.

Betournay’s adoptive mother, Judy, stopped to hug Daniel’s birth mother, Brenda Kelley of Tacoma, as they left the courtroom.

Following the verdict, Kelley wept openly on the shoulder of Pete Stack, the defense team’s investigator. Stack located Kelley, who lost custody of Daniel and April when Daniel was 18 months old, so she could testify during the trial.

Defense lawyer William McCool was visibly shaken by the verdict.

McCool said he worries for Betournay’s safety in prison and feels he won’t receive proper mental care in the correctional system.

Although he had asked Judge Yancey Reser unsuccessfully for a change of venue, McCool said he did not think the jury was grounds for appeal.

“I did not get a sense we had an unfair jury, a malicious jury or an uncaring jury,” McCool said. “I thought our jury was very much as reasonable as we could have hoped to get in Walla Walla County.”

However, McCool said he would be “incredibly surprised” if the verdict wasn’t appealed on other grounds. He didn’t elaborate.

Prosecutor Jim Nagle said Betournay’s case was emotionally difficult for everyone.

The verdict “was what we intended,” Nagle said. “But nobody wins in a case like this.”

State juvenile and prison officials will determine whether Betournay goes directly to prison or to a juvenile facility until he’s older.