Killer Gets Life Sentence For Courthouse Shootings Jury Unable To Unanimously Agree On Blackwell Execution

The same jury that convicted Timothy Craig Blackwell of gunning down his estranged wife and two other women at the King County Courthouse in Seattle couldn’t agree unanimously on whether he should die for the crime.

So Blackwell, 48, a computer repair technician from Kirkland, faces life in prison, the only other sentence that can be imposed for someone convicted of aggravated first-degree murder.

Last year’s shootings led to installation of metal detectors at the courthouse entrances in Seattle and much of the rest of the state.

“I have every confidence that the process was fair and that they gave it due consideration,” King County deputy prosecutor Lisa Marchese said after Tuesday’s jury announcement. “It’s a very difficult decision to make and I think it’s difficult to be disappointed if 12 people can’t make a decision of that magnitude and that gravity.”

The split within the panel, which deliberated for just over a day and a half in the penalty phase, was unknown. Jurors refused to talk to reporters. Lawyers said they wouldn’t learn the answer to that question or what issue led to the disagreement before today .

Blackwell made no comment before being handcuffed and led from the courtroom. The case was moved to Everett to avoid holding it at the scene of the shootings.

“It’s been a long, long trial, obviously an emotional trial,” said public defender Mike Small, perspiration beading his face. “We’re relieved and we’re gratified. We think it’s appropriate.”

Snohomish County Superior Court Judge Joseph Thibodeau set sentencing, a formality, for 1 p.m. Monday.

Blackwell was convicted May 29 of killing his estranged wife, Susana Remerata Blackwell, 25, whom he met through a pen-pal service, and two of her friends - Phoebe Dizon, 46, and Veronica Laureta Johnson, 42 - as they sat on a hallway bench awaiting final arguments in the Blackwells’ divorce case on March 2, 1995. All were immigrants from the Philippines.

He also was found guilty of first-degree manslaughter for killing his wife’s near-term fetus. He had learned one day earlier she was pregnant by another man.

That verdict took four hours to reach. By contrast, jurors got the penalty phase of the case at noon Friday and deliberated the rest of that day, all day Monday and a couple hours Tuesday morning.

None of the victims’ relatives, several of whom attended the trial and testified in the penalty phase, was present when the verdict was announced.

“I hope this will put an end to second-guessing as to what the appropriate penalty is for this crime,” said Mimi Castillo, Susana Blackwell’s divorce lawyer. “That’s the jury system. That’s our court system.”

Castillo said she had hoped for the death penalty but was satisfied that Blackwell would never walk free again.

“I looked at this guy going out of the courtroom and that’s the last time I’m ever going to see him,” she said. “That’s fine by me.”

Blackwell, who grew up in a troubled, poor home without a father in Glendive, Mont., brought his wife home from the Philippines on Feb. 5, 1994.

She left him 12 days later and accused him of assault, a charge that was dropped for lack of evidence. She filed for divorce and Blackwell sought an annulment, claiming she married him only to gain entry to the United States.