South Park attacks 'a nightmare ... all too real'

The 23-year-old man accused of creeping into a South Park home and attacking two women, leaving one dead and the other seriously wounded, could face the death penalty.

Isaiah Kalebu was charged Wednesday with aggravated first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, two counts of first-degree rape and first-degree burglary. King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg said his office is weighing whether to seek the death penalty against Kalebu.

He is being held at the King County Jail on $10 million bail.

Satterberg said Kalebu randomly selected Teresa Butz, 39, and her 36-year-old partner as victims.

Kalebu is accused of crawling through their open bathroom window around 1:30 a.m. on July 19, stripping naked and waking the two women with a threat that they would die if they didn't submit to his sexual demands, according to court charging papers filed Wednesday.

The women were raped repeatedly and a butcher knife was pressed against their throats. During the course of the 90-minute attack the women were slashed on their necks and cut on their arms, Satterberg said.

"As he would rape one woman, he would cut the other," Satterberg said. "It was a nightmare, but it was all too real."

When Butz fought back by kicking her attacker off the bed she was punched in the face, prosecutors said. Butz then was stabbed in the chest and arm but somehow managed to hurl a nightstand out the bedroom window, charging papers said. Butz leapt out the window, creating enough of a distraction for her partner to run out the front door.

Kalebu then escaped through the same window he came in through, prosecutors said.

Once outside the house, the two naked women screamed for help. Neighbors rushed to them, but Butz was pronounced dead in the street, Satterberg said. Butz's partner has been released from the hospital and has talked with police about the attack.

Once Kalebu is arraigned on the charges Aug. 12, Satterberg has 30 days to decide whether he will seek the death penalty. The 30-day deadline, which is required under state law, could potentially be pushed back if Kalebu's defense attorneys need more time to prepare, said Dan Donohoe, spokesman for Satterberg.

Satterberg said 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 bipolar.

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

"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.

Kalebu 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 but released him.

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

Kalebu's arrest resulted from 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 State Patrol crime lab matched DNA evidence from the South Park crime scene to evidence found at the 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 the suspect resembled the man in a police sketch drawn after the South Park attacks. The Pierce County Sheriff's Department 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 Friday, soon after a snippet of the video was released to the media.

Seattle Times staff reporter Christine Clarridge contributed to this report.

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