Tesch convicted of murder

James Phillip Tesch may spend the rest of his life wondering why he didn’t take the deal.

Tesch, 41, turned down an agreement in February to plead guilty to second-degree murder. At the last minute, Tesch changed his mind, and Deputy Prosecutor Mark Cipolla responded by amending the case to six charges including first-degree murder, kidnapping, robbery and assault.

On Friday, a jury of seven women and five men found Tesch guilty on all counts in connection with the torture death in September of 52-year-old Rick L. Tiwater.

“I’m pleased,” Deputy Prosecutor Eugene Cruz said.

Tesch stared directly ahead and displayed no reaction at the verdict. His only move was to turn around and give a quick glance to his older brother, Eddie Tesch.

“Who wouldn’t be disappointed? I think they got the wrong guy,” Eddie Tesch said. “I can’t believe the state would do that.”

James Phillip Tesch was charged along with 45-year-old Ben Alan Burkey, who is schedule to appear Monday for the start of his first-degree murder trial before Superior Court Judge Jerome Leveque. Both prosecutors and James Phillip Tesch’s defense attorney, Senit Lutgen, agreed during arguments and testimony that Burkey clearly was the main actor in the death of Tiwater.

“I feel my brother was just a pawn of Ben Burkey because of fear,” Eddie Tesch said.

Superior Court Judge Harold Clarke set James Phillip Tesch’s sentencing for July 7 at 2 p.m.

The case began on Sept. 5 when a man riding his all-terrain vehicle spotted Tiwater’s body on a trail leading from the 13400 block of East Laurel Road in north Spokane County. Investigators eventually arrested Burkey and later James Phillip Tesch.

Cipolla and Cruz told jurors Thursday that Tesch helped Burkey assault Tiwater with a golf club and hammer inside Burkey’s Spokane home. The autopsy also showed that somebody lit Tiwater’s face and hair on fire before he was run over by a car.

Tiwater’s skin and blood were later located on the undercarriage of Burkey’s 1987 Ford Thunderbird, which witnesses testified was being driven on Sept. 4 by Tesch.

In his closing statements on Thursday, Lutgen said Burkey coerced his client through fear into helping. “This case is about Ben Burkey, his rage and his vengeance and his need for self-preservation,” Lutgen said.

Cipolla said that both Burkey and Tesch coveted the $6,000 Harley-Davidson motorcycle that Tiwater purchased not long before his death.

Lutgen tried his best to discount that claim, saying that Burkey went into a drug-induced rage because he thought Tiwater was a snitch for the police.

Burkey “doesn’t want to go back to prison. That’s a reason to kill someone,” Lutgen said, “It’s not about a … shiny red motorcycle.”

Lutgen also told the jury that Burkey killed Tiwater in his Spokane home and only called Tesch to help move the body. Lutgen said that his client was innocent of the charges because you can’t kidnap, rob, assault or kill a man who was already dead.

But Cruz countered in his closing statement that all the evidence indicated that Tiwater had survived the vicious attack in the Spokane home before being transported out to the rural area by Tesch and Burkey.

“Imagine, there is Rick Tiwater in a wooded area,” Cruz told the jury. “He’s on the ground. He is bleeding. He is in tremendous pain from being hit multiple times in the head with a hammer and a golf club. His face, his hair, has been torched by fire. He’s just been run over by Ben Burkey’s car, but he’s not dead.”

“He’s told to get up. He’s told to drop his pants and run,” Cruz said. “He tries, but he collapses about 20 feet away.”

Cipolla reminded the jury that Tiwater’s stolen motorcycle was found in Tesch’s garage after the killing. “Mr. Tiwater was tortured and killed over being a rat and over a motorcycle. Again, I’m a simple man. I don’t understand it either,” Cipolla said. “It was cold-blooded. It was cruel.”