2nd mistrial in slaying of Boeing worker

A King County judge declared a mistrial Wednesday in the second trial of a 19-year-old Des Moines man accused of helping a woman and her son kill the woman's husband in an alleged murder-for-hire plot.

Two unexpected developments in the case spurred Superior Court Judge Steven Gonzalez to bring an end to Wilson Sayachack's trial, which began last week: A new witness who came forward Friday has told police that Sayachack confessed to the 2005 slaying of Ronald Whitehead, attorneys said. And, in an unrelated development, police on Monday retrieved a gun during a drug bust at a Puyallup home that matches the one believed to have been used to kill Whitehead, attorneys said.

Defense attorneys had asked the judge to declare a mistrial after the new witness, a friend of Sayachack's, came forward and told police that Sayachack confessed to killing Whitehead when the friend visited him in jail soon after the killing. Gonzalez agreed that attorneys would need additional preparation time to investigate the new evidence.

A new trial date of Aug. 13 has been set.

Whitehead, a 61-year-old Boeing employee, was fatally shot on March 18, 2005, near SeaTac while he was driving to work, in a slaying police said was made to look like a carjacking.

Prosecutors allege that Sayachack, 16 at the time, hid in the trunk of Whitehead's car while Jon Ogden, Whitehead's stepson, was in the passenger seat. Whitehead's wife, Velma Ogden-Whitehead, is accused of paying Sayachack $1,000 for the killing. Both Ogden-Whitehead and Ogden are scheduled to go to trial this year.

The newly found gun appears to match the murder weapon, which has been missing since the slaying and is thought to have belonged to the victim, said Craig Peterson, senior deputy prosecuting attorney.

It will take about three days to determine whether the gun is the murder weapon, Peterson said. It is unlikely that useful DNA can be retrieved from the gun, which has possibly been handled by several people over the past three years and was recently cleaned, he added.

But investigators may be able to uncover a trail of ownership for the gun, Peterson said. "Clearly, this evidence could be helpful to our case," he said.

But defense attorneys also said the gun could be helpful to their case. Sayachack has maintained that Ogden-Whitehead and Ogden committed the crime and that he knew nothing of their plan. "It's not a bad thing for us," said defense attorney Veronica Freitas.

Sayachack's first trial ended in a mistrial on Feb. 7 after a jury deadlocked 9-3 in favor of acquittal.

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