Accused Teens Too Young To Face Death Sentence

There’s no chance of a death sentence if accused teenage killers Kevin and Jerry Boot are convicted, Spokane County authorities said Friday.

The cousins are charged with aggravated first-degree murder in the Dec. 29 kidnap-slaying of 22-year-old Felicia Reese of Spokane.

Normally, an aggravated murder conviction carries either a death sentence or life imprisonment without possibility of parole.

Members of the Reese family are calling for the death penalty if the boys are convicted.

But Kevin Boot, 17, and Jerry Boot, 16, are too young to face a death sentence, said Pat Thompson, Spokane County’s chief criminal deputy prosecutor.

“It’s not an option,” she said.

Prosecuting attorneys cannot seek the death penalty for someone who commits murder while under the age of 18, the Washington Supreme Court ruled in October 1993.

In doing so, the high court revoked the death sentence of Michael Furman of Kitsap County. He was 17 years and 10 months old when he raped and fatally bludgeoned an elderly woman to death in 1989.

The Boots are charged with aggravated murder for allegedly killing Reese during commission of a robbery, or to conceal a crime.

They are being prosecuted as adults.

Sheriff’s deputies said the boys forced the victim into her car at gunpoint,They took $43 from her purse, then shot her in the head.