Man accused of killing wife gives up custody

A man charged with first-degree murder signed paperwork Wednesday that allows his four children to become temporary wards of the state.

Richard Atkinson, 32, signed the paperwork at about noon. Had he refused to sign, it would have triggered a hearing, said John McFarland, who coordinates the offender docket for Spokane County Juvenile Court.

Atkinson was charged last month with killing his estranged wife, 29-year-old Andrea Atkinson. Prosecutors later added three counts of second-degree assault and one count of reckless endangerment against his children.

According to police reports and witness accounts, Atkinson repeatedly ran over his wife April 12 with a van in the front yard of a stranger’s home as his four children watched. Witnesses said Andrea Atkinson’s last act was to push the three youngest children out of the way.

Despite his charges, juvenile court officials said Atkinson retains parental rights and has a say about who gets custody of the children, ages 9, 6, 5 and 3.

Monte Huntsman, who works as a liaison between juvenile court and the state Department of Social and Health Services, said in a previous interview that the process Wednesday was one of many decisions to determine the final placement of the children.

A judge will make that decision based on recommendations from state case workers and a guardian ad litem, which is a volunteer assigned to act on the children’s behalf, Huntsman said.

The current recommendation is for the children to go to Atkinson’s sister, Rachel Enriquez, who is a single mother of two and lives in California.

Andrea Atkinson’s brother, Dan Novick, of Port Angeles, Wash., said in a previous interview that he and his wife, RandaLyn, also wanted custody of the Atkinson children.

The Novicks reluctantly agreed with state case workers’ recommendations that Enriquez get custody, even though they believed they could provide a better home, Dan Novick said earlier this month.