Defendant says "mental issues," threats led him to help one teen kill another

A man acting as his own attorney told a jury Wednesday that "mental issues" and threats from a 17-year-old girl he barely knew led him to help kill another teenage girl.

Demar Rhome, on trial in King County Superior Court for first-degree murder, said that Kialani Brown, a girl he'd recently met on a telephone chat line, masterminded the stabbing of Lashonda Flynn and told him if he didn't go along with it she would try to pin the crime on him.

Flynn, 17, who was romantically involved with Rhome and lived with him in Seattle, was fatally stabbed and then left in the bushes at Discovery Park in November 2003.

Rhome said that Brown, who came from Vancouver, Wash., to visit him the week of the slaying, lured him into helping her kill Flynn in hopes that she could then blackmail him into killing her ex-boyfriend.

Rhome, who has refused a court-appointed attorney, put himself on the stand Wednesday as the sole defense witness. He told jurors that he watched Brown stab Flynn and did nothing to come to the victim's aid, even as she begged for help.

After the stabbing, Rhome said, he "walked over to Lashonda and I was like, 'I'm so sorry,' " he said.

Brown previously confessed to the stabbing and was convicted of second-degree murder.

Prosecutors have argued that although Rhome didn't wield the knife, he planned the stabbing and coerced Brown into doing it.

On Wednesday, Rhome tried to paint himself as a caring but unlucky man who took Flynn in when she had nowhere to go. He said he tried to talk Brown out of the slaying.

Rhome, who has a history of mental illness, told the jury that he had been drinking and smoking marijuana the night of the killing. He tried to explain why he didn't intervene as Brown stabbed Flynn.

"I'm drunk, nervous, mental issues contributing, I was tempted to walk over but I honestly felt I couldn't do anything. I was like, 'I don't want to get stabbed.' "

Rhome said that after the slaying, Brown threatened him with a knife and told him not to tell the police what she had done or she would accuse him of the murder and of other crimes including rape.

"She knew how to cry and shed tears, and I didn't doubt it," said Rhome, who eventually led police to Flynn's body and the weapons used in the slaying.

The trial is expected to conclude today.

Natalie Singer: 206-464-2704 or nsinger@seattletimes.com