More than 8 years later, suspect in 4 Des Moines deaths charged

A King County judge Wednesday ruled that Leemah Carneh is competent to stand trial in the slayings of four people in Des Moines more than eight years ago.

Carneh, 27, was immediately arraigned on four counts of aggravated first-degree murder, a move that delighted relatives of the victims who have been awaiting a trial since shortly after the slayings.

Since his arrest, Carneh has been shuffled between Western State Hospital near Tacoma and the King County Courthouse for hearings related to his mental competency because he has been diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic. During the past several weeks, Superior Court Judge Palmer Robinson heard testimony from prosecutors and Carneh's attorneys over his current mental competency.

Carneh was charged with aggravated murder soon after the March 8, 2001, slayings, but the case unraveled when he was found incompetent to stand trial in 2006. Carneh was sent to Western State Hospital for civil commitment. He was charged again in 2008 after Western State doctors indicated he was improving.

In November, Robinson ordered that Carneh be returned to the hospital for six more months of treatment with the hope that additional time there would help him improve.

Carneh is accused of killing Richard and Jane Larson, their grandson Taelor Marks, 17, and his girlfriend, Josie Peterson, 17, in the Larsons' Des Moines home.

After the slayings, King County sheriff's investigators searched Carneh's house and found a photo of Peterson, a ring belonging to Marks, luggage with the Larsons' names on it, a car stereo identified as coming from Marks' Monte Carlo, a handgun and bloody clothes.

Sheriff's Office Detective Scott Tompkins said Wednesday that Carneh had been obsessed with Peterson.

When Robinson announced to the courtroom that the trial should proceed, Mary Marrero, Peterson's mother, loudly hissed, "Yes!" Marrero and Lorraine Marks, whose parents and son were killed, stared at each other in disbelief while Carneh was arraigned.

"I'm feeling relief," Marks said, crying after the hearing. "Feeling like this can finally move in the direction of healing."

Dan Donohoe, spokesman for Prosecutor Dan Satterberg, said prosecutors would not seek the death penalty against Carneh.

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

Seattle Times news researcher Miyoko Wolf contributed to this report.