Trial for Carnation murder suspects not likely until 2010

The trial for two people charged with killing six members of a family in Carnation on Christmas Eve 2007 will likely not occur until next year.

King County Senior Deputy Prosecutor James Konat and defense lawyers Kathryn Ross and Stephan Illa told King Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Ramsdell on Wednesday that because of the complexity of the case, they will not be ready for trial before 2010. The defense attorneys said they are scheduling interview dates for nearly 200 witnesses.

Konat requested that Ramsdell carefully scrutinize how he and the defense teams are handling the case to avoid lengthy appeals that are common in death-penalty cases.

The defendants, Michele Anderson, 30, and her former live-in boyfriend, Joseph McEnroe, 29, are accused of fatally shooting Anderson's parents, Wayne and Judy Anderson; Anderson's brother and sister-in-law, Scott and Erica Anderson, both 32; and the younger couple's children, 5-year-old Olivia and 3-year-old Nathan.

King County sheriff's investigators say Anderson and McEnroe armed themselves with handguns just before 5 p.m. on Dec. 24, 2007, entered her parents' home and fatally shot the couple. Scott and Erica Anderson and their children were shot when they arrived a short time later for a Christmas Eve gathering.

If found guilty, Anderson and McEnroe face only two possible sentences for the six counts of aggravated murder: execution, or life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Anderson told The Seattle Times during a jailhouse interview in June that she and McEnroe killed her family in a fit of rage, claiming she had suffered years of physical and emotional abuse. But after King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg announced in October that he would seek the death penalty, Anderson's attorney said they would mount a vigorous defense.

During the hourlong hearing Wednesday, Anderson and McEnroe sat by their attorneys and didn't look at each other.

Ramsdell told the attorneys to return to court Feb. 24 for an informal hearing to discuss the progress of the case. The judge is not expected to set the trial date until later this year.

Information from Seattle Times archives is included in this report.