Jurors view videotape in woman’s murder-for-hire trial

A Spokane County jury saw a videotape Monday of an estranged girlfriend hiring a “hitman” to kill Spokane Valley attorney Peter Dahlin as though she were negotiating with a termite exterminator.

Jackie R. Burton, 37, didn’t know that the hitman really was sheriff’s Detective Leroy Fairbanks when she gave him a $500 down payment Jan. 12 on a painful death for her former boyfriend and longtime employer, Dahlin.

“He is the most vicious, toxic, poisonous man I have ever met,” Burton told Fairbanks in measured tones when Fairbanks asked what she wanted. “I want him gone.”

For his part, Fairbanks sounded like a detective taking a confession, going over and over the same information to make sure there was no mistake.

“This is not a game, and we’ve got to make darn sure that nothing goes wrong here,” Fairbanks said, never raising his voice above a soothing purr and only once flavoring his speech with a vulgar expression.

Was there anything in particular she wanted, Fairbanks asked, ruling out what he’d been told was her proposal to have Dahlin crushed in a vehicle by a car-crushing machine after being slowly beaten to death. Looks good on television, but not practical, Fairbanks said.

Each of several times Fairbanks asked, Burton said she wanted Dahlin to die painfully. Burton said she wanted Fairbanks to tell Dahlin, using a couple of obscene words, that Dahlin had messed with the wrong woman.

Aside from that, the meeting was mostly a dispassionate discussion of information Fairbanks would need. Burton had already supplied Dahlin’s picture from his Yellow Pages ad in the phone book, and she added directions to Dahlin’s rural home, details about where he liked to hang out, who might be with him, and what to expect from his security system.

Dahlin used to leave his patio sliders open, but Burton said he probably didn’t do that anymore “because of me.”

She described his vehicles, including a $3,700 dent Dahlin testified she put in his Nissan Maxima when she rammed it last December after he caught her in his home and ordered her to leave.

Dahlin, who has a history of domestic-violence disputes with other women, said Burton had been his legal assistant almost 14 years, and they had been intimate since late 2002 when her marriage failed. He said she developed a serious alcohol problem, prompting him to fire her five to 10 times and break off their relationship. Dahlin said he kept rehiring Burton because his office was “in shambles” without her, but finally in late 2004 he’d had enough.

Testimony indicated Burton took another job, with attorney Michael Riccelli, and was introduced at work to one of Riccelli’s clients, Jon Ballentine. Ballentine, also known as “Rev. Leroy,” testified Monday that he and some friends — known as Daddy Rat and Animal — were working as tavern bouncers and had printed up business cards advertising themselves as a security service called Large White Men Inc.

The cards were just a ploy to impress women, according to the 6-foot-3 1/2-inch, 300-pound Ballentine, whose flowing gray hair brushed the suspenders of his overalls.

He said he agreed to meet Burton at a tavern in January, and she asked him to kill Dahlin. Ballentine said he turned Burton down flat, but “I sure did” take her home and have sex with her after a few more drinks.

Ballentine said he became concerned when Burton persisted in trying to get him to kill Dahlin, so he asked Riccelli for advice and was told to call Spokane police. Detective John Miller asked Ballentine to introduce Burton to bogus hitman Fairbanks and sit in on the meeting in which Burton was secretly videotaped.

Miller conceded on cross-examination by defense attorney Bevan Maxey that Ballentine’s often-bantering testimony Monday was frequently at odds with what he told officers in January. But Miller told Deputy Prosecutor Steve Garvin that Ballentine was consistent about Burton’s desire to hire someone to kill Dahlin.

Garvin plans to show jurors a videotape today of Fairbanks showing Burton photos of Dahlin posed to look as though he had been beaten and shot to death. Burton gave Fairbanks “effusive” thanks and a second $500 payment, Garvin said in his opening statement.

Maxey said in his opening statement that evidence would show Ballentine pushed Burton to hire an assassin. Ballentine plied her with sex and “sweet nothings,” told her he had already contacted a killer and that she couldn’t back out without endangering herself as a “snitch,” according to Maxey.

Maxey plans to present psychological testimony today in the solicitation-of-first-degree-murder trial that Burton has a personality that is susceptible to entrapment.