South Park suspect charged with aggravated murder; could face death penalty

A 23-year-old man accused of crawling through the bathroom window of a South Park home on July 19 and killing one woman and leaving her partner seriously wounded was charged today with aggravated murder and one count of first-degree rape.

Isaiah M.K. Kalebu, who is being held at the King County Jail on $10 million bail, was also charged with attempted first-degree murder and one count of burglary, according to King County prosecutors, who are considering seeking the death penalty in the case.

Kalebu is accused of brutally attacking Teresa Butz, 39, and her partner, a 36-year-old woman. Butz died after being stabbed multiple times. Her partner was released from the hospital a day after the attacks.

King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg said during a news conference this morning that his office will consider a number of factors before deciding whether to pursue the death penalty, including Kalebu's mental state at the time of the attack. Last year, Kalebu was diagnosed as being bi-polar.

Satterberg said that the 36-year-old survivor has given police no indication that the man was having some sort of mental illness related episode when he sneaked into their house and viciously attacked them.

"There is nothing about the conduct of the defendant during that time that suggests that he was under any delusion, that he was acting under any symptom of mental illness," Satterberg said.

According to the charges, the two women were awakened in the middle of the night to find a naked Kalebu standing over their bed. Holding a large butcher knife, he told them that he was there for sex and ordered them to stay quiet, the charges allege.

He repeatedly raped and tortured the women over the next 90 minutes, threatening to kill them if they fought back.

At one point, Butz fought back and kicked Kalebu, according to the charges. Kalebu allegedly used the butt of the knife to strike her in the mouth and stabbed her in the heart. When he then attacked the other woman, Butz threw a table through a window, according to the charges. Butz then jumped out of the window.

While Kalebu was distracted, the other woman was able to run out of the house through the front door, the charges allege.

Prosecutors say they believe the women were targeted at random.

Kalebu, 23, is also a suspect in the deaths of his aunt and her tenant — Rachel Kalebu, 62, and John Jones, 57 — in a July 9 fire at the aunt's University Place home. Pierce County sheriff's detectives questioned Kalebu at the scene of the blaze but released him.

The fire started a day after Kalebu's aunt filed for a protection order against him and made him leave the house.

Kelabu's arrest resulted from the release of a surveillance video obtained by Auburn police after a break-in at Auburn City Hall in March 2008. The video captured someone believed to be Kalebu walking into the building.

Kalebu, according to sources close to the investigation, is believed to have found his way into the basement and cut his hand opening a box of keys that would help him gain access to the elevator and offices.

The Washington State Patrol crime lab matched DNA evidence from the South Park crime scene to evidence found at a Auburn crime scene. While both departments had DNA from the same man, and that DNA was on file with the state, no one knew whose it was.

When Seattle police saw the video from the unsolved Auburn City Hall burglary they noted that the suspect resembled the man in police sketch drawn after the South Park attacks. The Pierce County Sheriff's Office and the King County Prosecutor's Office, which both had recent dealings with Kalebu, quickly pointed him out as the man on the video.

Kalebu was arrested on Friday, soon after a snippet of the video was released to the media.

While Kalebu has been diagnosed as being bipolar, his attorney, Phillip Tavel, said on Saturday that after Kalebu was arrested the man was calm and "his mental state is very clear."

Tavel is also representing Kalebu against charges that he threatened to kill his mother. In March 2008, Denise Kalebu contacted the King County Sheriff's Office to report that her son had threatened to kill her when she ordered him to move out. Kalebu was charged with domestic-violence felony harassment and domestic-violence malicious mischief.

Jennifer Sullivan: 206-464-8294 or jensullivan@seattletimes.com