Teen May Be Tried As Adult In Two Deaths

Daniel Betournay, 15, should be tried as an adult for the suffocation murders of his younger sister and her friend, a prosecutor said Wednesday.

Walla Walla County Prosecutor Jim Nagle said he wants to see Betournay tried in adult court after reviewing the case and a psychiatric evaluation in which doctors said he appears fit to stand trial.

Authorities said Betournay, a freshman at Walla Walla High School, has confessed to suffocating his sister, April, and her friend Beth Garbe by duct-taping plastic garbage bags over their heads after they returned from school one afternoon last month. Both girls were 14.

His psychological fitness was quickly called into question, in part because of “suicidal gestures” that reportedly include a drug overdose two weeks before the murders. At the prosecutor’s request, Superior Court Judge Donald Schaacht ordered Betournay evaluated at Western State Hospital in Steilacoom, the only facility in the state available for evaluating juveniles.

Nagle declined to reveal what the evaluation concluded other than to say doctors feel Betournay is fit to stand trial.

“It’s not juvenile in nature,” Nagle said.

“In terms of the planning, the skill involved - I wouldn’t say skill, but this wasn’t just somebody pulling a gun out and shooting someone else on a split-second decision. And it wasn’t done by somebody at a relatively tender age.”A new hearing could be scheduled for as early as Jan. 20, Nagle said.

As a juvenile, he could be imprisoned until the age of 21 - 23 under extraordinary circumstances - if found guilty. As an adult, he faces a maximum sentence of life and a standard of 22-30 years.