Jury Gives Death Penalty To Cal Brown
A King County jury today sentenced Cal C. Brown to death for the 1991 murder of a young Burien woman, Holly Washa.
Brown remained hunched over the defense table as the verdict was read. His defense attorney, Terry Mulligan, leaned over and tried to console him.
Mulligan claimed Brown was a product of a dysfunctional family and suffered largely untreated mental disorders.
Essentially, jurors were asked to weigh the horrific details of the crime against the details of Brown's pathetic life. Juror Michael Dykeman said jurors did not find details of Brown's bad childhood enough reason to find leniency.
"I found the crime to be very calculating," said Dykeman, of Issaquah. "He had a background of committing serious crimes and he did not show Holly Washa any mercy at all. . . . I was very bothered by the way she was tortured and how he showed no repentance for it."
Brown, 35, had been paroled from an Oregon prison just two months before he abducted 22-year-old Washa from her car along Pacific Highway South May 23, 1991. He eventually robbed, raped, tortured and killed the Nebraska native before flying to California, where he attacked another woman.
Jurors deliberated all day Thursday before reaching their verdict today.
He becomes the 11th man on the state's death row.
In urging the death penalty, prosecutors recited Brown's extensive criminal history and asked jurors to keep Brown's detailed and sometimes glib confession in mind.
Brown did not look at the jury during the trial and did not testify.
The same jury had convicted him of aggravated first-degree murder two weeks ago. Had jurors not sentenced him to death, Brown would have spent the rest of his life in prison.
He is the third man to be sentenced to death in King County since capital-punishment laws were enacted in 1981. The death sentences of those men, Kwan Fai "Willie" Mak and David Lewis Rice, have been overturned by federal judges.
Brown's sentence will automatically be reviewed by the state Supreme Court.
Washa's body was found in the trunk of her car parked in an airport-area lot Memorial Day weekend. After being arrested on the California knife attack, Brown confessed to also killing Washa and told authorities where they could find her corpse.
Washa had only recently moved to the Northwest from a tiny Nebraska town when Brown abducted her. She was waiting to drive her car out of a parking lot onto the highway when Brown, who was walking next to it, pointed to her rear tire.
When she opened her door to look, he thrust a knife to her neck and kidnapped her.