Arrasmith Trial In Jury’s Hands No Decision Reached After Eight Hours Of Deliberation

Ken Arrasmith is either a vigilante who plugged Luella and Ron Bingham with 29 bullets out of revenge, or a loving father who shot them because he feared for his life.

Jurors spent eight hours Tuesday trying to decide whether the former Asotin County sheriff’s deputy is guilty of murdering the Binghams. They’ll start deliberating again at 9 a.m. today.

Lawyers finished closing arguments Tuesday in the murder trial that has captured international attention for its “frontier justice” and for the seamy lifestyle of the victims.

“It is no exaggeration to say that the eyes of the world are on us,” said Michael Kane, special prosecutor. “The issue in this case is right or wrong. Do we ever have the right to say it’s OK to take a human life?”

The jury, which debated that question until 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, must decide whether Arrasmith is guilty of first-degree or second-degree murder in either death.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for the 44-year-old trucker from Clarkston, Wash.

Despite requests from both sides, Judge Ida Leggett decided against telling jury members that they could find Arrasmith guilty of manslaughter, a lesser charge that means the shooting happened in a sudden quarrel or the heat of passion.

Most observers expect a decision before Thanksgiving, so the jurors can make the long trek home to Twin Falls for the holiday. Deliberations were interrupted at least once Tuesday, when one juror’s hearing aid went out.

Family members and friends waited nervously for the verdict. They sat on stiff-backed chairs and huddled in front of pop machines and on the stairs in the courthouse lobby. They worried.

Cynthia Arrasmith, the 16-year-old daughter molested by the Binghams, carried a heavy blanket into the courthouse Tuesday evening. After the jury stopped deliberating, she walked across the street and waved up at her father in his jail cell.

“I want this over with,” she said. “I’m very anxious to find out what’s going on.”

In closing arguments, Kane and Nez Perce County Prosecutor Denise Rosen said Arrasmith bypassed the justice system for his own justice.

His defense lawyers, Roy and Craig Mosman of Moscow, Idaho, shifted the blame to the Binghams and the system itself.

Arrasmith’s lawyers said Arrasmith believed the Binghams planned to kill him.

Arrasmith contends he visited them to gather evidence of the couple’s sexual abuse of his daughter.

“Frankly, it was crazy,” Craig Mosman said. “It was desperate. I think Ken said it was a stupid plan. Does it make it murder? Absolutely not. Was it suicidal? Yeah.”

On May 17, Arrasmith drove to an east Lewiston auto shop and walked up to Ron Bingham, who was working under a pickup. Arrasmith carried a semiautomatic handgun hidden in a thin cardboard box. He had strapped a 9mm pistol with a laser sight underneath his T-shirt, which stated, “Play with the bad boys, you’re gonna get hurt.”

Arrasmith said he shot Ron Bingham when he saw the man reach for something shiny, which he thought was a gun. Arrasmith shot him 23 times.

He then shot Luella Bingham six times in the back as she fled, negating Arrasmith’s plea of self-defense in her case, the prosecutor said.

Kane held both guns in his hands and pointed the semiautomatic at the ground in front of the jurors. He sounded more than 20 shots one by one.

“They were not vermin,” Kane said. “They were not animals. They were human beings, and they had rights.”

That was about the nicest thing anybody said in court about the Binghams.

Most people agree they weren’t up for any good neighbor awards. Since Arrasmith shot the couple, 17 other people have come forward with tales of sexual abuse at the hands of the Binghams. The charges stretch back nearly two decades.

Craig Mosman tried to appeal to the jury’s emotions, and spoke often of his family. Mosman talked of his 13-year-old daughter and his fear as a child when his family was stalked by a man threatening to kill them.

He faced the jurors, softly imploring them to think of themselves as parents in Arrasmith’s shoes.

What would they do for their daughter?

“Ladies and gentlemen, I’ve concluded, as most people would, that I would do anything,” Mosman said.

, DataTimes MEMO: Cut in the Spokane edition.