Man Convicted Of Two Murders

A Superior Court jury Monday convicted Charles Finch of two counts of aggravated first-degree murder in the deaths of a blind man and a police officer at his estranged wife’s trailer.

The penalty phase of the trial begins Tuesday in Snohomish County Superior Court, Deputy Public Defender Al Kitching said.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty, Deputy Prosecutor Michael Downes said.

Because the proceeding is not complete, neither attorney would comment on the verdict.

Jurors, who also convicted Finch of unlawful imprisonment and second-degree assault, began deliberating the trial phase Thursday.

Finch, 46, went to the trailer to kill his wife, Thelma, and himself, Kitching and Downes said.

Instead, he fatally shot Ronald Modlin, 38, a blind man who had lived with Thelma Finch for 13 years before she married Finch; and Snohomish County Sheriff’s Sgt. James Kinard, 34.

Downes described Finch as a cold-blooded, cunning killer who laughed when a 911 operator asked about Modlin’s condition. His wife’s mother, Margaret Elizares, persuaded him to call 911.

Finch told the operator he had shot Modlin, that his gun was outside and that he would surrender when deputies arrived. But he kept the gun and refused to come out when officers arrived.

Kinard was killed when Finch fired four or five rounds out a window.