Kim could face death penalty
Charges against an 18-year-old high school student accused of murdering his parents were upgraded Wednesday, clearing the way for Spokane County prosecutors to consider the death penalty.
Bryan P. Kim originally was charged with two counts of second-degree murder in connection with the Dec. 6 slaying of his parents, Richard and Terri Kim, who lived near Mount Spokane. The teenager now faces two counts of first-degree premeditated murder.
Chief Criminal Deputy Prosecutor Jack Driscoll said the decision has not been made to seek the death penalty, but he said the legal option – which is rarely taken – is available if Bryan Kim is convicted of the new charges.
Kim, a senior at Mount Spokane High School, is scheduled to appear at 1:30 p.m. today for a first appearance on the upgraded charges. At the hearing, the judge will set a date for an arraignment, at which time a trial date will be set.
Driscoll filed new information Wednesday in court documents that he said were the basis of the upgraded charges.
According to court records, Bryan Kim took “considerable time” to break into his father’s safe. “There was a space in a drawer in the gun safe, and it appeared a knife was missing from this space,” records state.
It appeared that Richard Kim was killed shortly after he arrived home from work about 5:30 p.m. “He was stabbed (five) times to the neck and chest areas,” court records state.
Investigators concluded that Terri Kim was killed about 7:30 p.m. when she got out of her car in the garage of the home in the 18500 block of East Eagle Ridge Lane. Her book bag containing work items was in the garage, court documents state.
“It appears that she was attacked with an item from the garage and received blunt force trauma to the head,” sheriff’s Detective Doug Marske wrote. “Her cause of death, however, was determined to be asphyxiation caused by Zip Ties placed around her neck and tightened.”
The zip ties were too short to reach around Terri Kim’s neck, Marske wrote. “Two Zip Ties had to be put together to complete the strangulation.”
Prosecutors are expected to argue that the step of combining two zip ties would be enough to show premeditation. Driscoll declined to elaborate.
A friend of Terri Kim called the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office on Dec. 6, asking it to conduct a welfare check after Terri Kim failed to show up for her job as a math teacher at Rogers High School.
Three deputies went to the home and found co-workers of Richard Kim, a respiratory therapist, there looking for him. He, too, had failed to appear at work.
The deputies searched the home and found blood. They then searched a green metal outbuilding and found both bodies in the bucket of a Bobcat front loader. They spoke to Bryan Kim’s older sister, Jessica Kim, who told them that Bryan Kim had bipolar disorder and had been told by their parents to move out before the first of the year.
Bryan Kim was taken into custody at Mount Spokane High School.
In an interrogation room, Kim told Detectives Marske and Mike Ricketts that it would be wise for him to “lawyer up,” according to court records.
Marske told Kim that he was under arrest for the murders of his parents. Kim then stated: “Go on with what (you’re) gonna do. Book me. I’m gonna cry myself to sleep later. Let’s get this going.”