Man’s sentence reduced in killing
One of two men who killed a Spokane woman in December 1994 during a two-month crime spree pleaded guilty a second time Friday.
Jason Victor Kukrall, 31, apologized this time for the stabbing death of 21-year-old Linda Guillen.
Guillen was working as a prostitute when Kukrall and Toby R. Stackhouse killed her in the 300 block of North Lee, near the former Playfair horse-racing track.
Kukrall’s original conviction was overturned by the Washington Supreme Court on grounds that the state’s second-degree felony murder rule was defective at the time.
The rule says it is murder if a victim dies in the course of another felony. However, the Supreme Court said the list of felonies that could lead to second-degree murder didn’t include assault when Kukrall was convicted.
Kukrall said in 1996 that he was present when Stackhouse beat and kicked Guillen, slashed her throat and stabbed her 19 times.
In a confession he unsuccessfully tried to recant, Stackhouse said both of them battered Guillen before Kukrall tossed Stackhouse a knife and told him to kill Guillen. Stackhouse’s first-degree felony murder conviction was unaffected by the Supreme Court ruling.
This time, Deputy Prosecutor Mary Ann Brady charged Kukrall with first-degree murder, and he agreed to plead guilty to standard second-degree murder. Visiting Court of Appeals Judge John Schultheis sentenced Kukrall to 141/2 years in prison, 21/2 years less than he got the first time.
The minimum-standard sentence was what Kukrall bargained for but didn’t get in 1996.
As in 1996, Kukrall also pleaded guilty Friday to first-degree armed burglary for breaking into Mary J. Foster’s Elk-area home in the 41700 block of North Frantz Road in January 1995.
Authorities said Foster apparently was assaulted during the alleged burglary, but no assault charge was filed because Foster suffered amnesia as well as a skull fracture.
Kukrall and Stackhouse used guns taken from Foster’s home to murder Fertile Valley homeowner Steve Roscoe in January 1995 when he caught them breaking into his home.
Kukrall fired the fatal shot, piercing Roscoe’s heart with a .38-caliber bullet. He was sentenced to 26 years for that crime.
His new Spokane County sentence will begin when he completes the Pend Oreille County sentence. Relatively little of the time Kukrall has served so far counts toward his Spokane County sentence.