Death penalty trial begins
Defense says suspect’s wife is the real killer; prosecutor cites DNA
MARTINEZ — In a packed courtroom Monday morning, friends and family of Hercules resident Susie Ko passed around a tissue box, some weeping quietly, as they listened to prosecutor Molly Manoukian describe the final day of Ko’s life.
The retired teacher was killed inside her home on Oct. 5, 2012, the randomly selected victim of a carjacking by escaped San Bernardino County inmate Darnell Washington and his wife, Tania Washington. Ko’s body was found in a pool of blood inside the threshold of her front door. She’d been stabbed multiple times, beaten and had several circular cuts on her face that prosecutors say came from a sawedoff shotgun that had been pressed firmly against her skull.
“He stabbed her over and over again. He stabbed her 21 times,” Manoukian said, showing the jury a knife later recovered from the back of Ko’s stolen Subaru.
Within days, authorities arrested and charged Darnell Washington, 28, and his wife with Ko’s murder. Earlier this year, authorities offered Tania Washington a plea deal, simultaneously building a capital murder case against her husband. She accepted the deal, taking a 23-year prison sentence in exchange for a nocontest plea to voluntary manslaughter and other charges.
But Darnell Washington’s attorney, public defender Tim Ahearn, said during opening statements Monday that Tania Washington was Ko’s real killer. As evidence of Tania Washington’s culpability, Ahearn pointed to the state of Ko’s body, saying that her killer had clearly “panicked” and “become unhinged.” Darnell Washington, Ahearn said, wouldn’t have brutalized Ko in that fashion because his crime spree over the previous several weeks proved he tended to maintain a cool head under pressure.
Prosecutor Manoukian’s case is somewhat simpler: During her opening statement, she referenced DNA evidence — Ko’s blood — that was found on a knife, a sawed-off shotgun and an Oakland A’s cap that also contained Darnell Washington’s DNA.
Leading up to the killing was Darnell Washington’s jail escape, where he scaled a 14-foot cement wall and two razor wire fences, then ran to a car where his wife was waiting.
Five days later, the couple attempted to carjack at least four people within a short time in the Los Angeles area, but Ahearn said that Darnell Washington’s actions that day showed he didn’t panic under pressure. Ahearn said Washington approached one of his victims holding a shotgun and simply said, “Ma’am, where are your keys?” in a calm voice.
As he went on from victim to victim, he reassured each one that they wouldn’t be hurt, and asked another one to “please” hand over his car keys, Ahearn said. The defense attorney conceded that Washington had shot a policeman in the head that day but also said he’d only fired one shot and that the officer escaped serious injury.
Tania Washington, by contrast, “panics, becomes frantic, becomes unhinged” under pressure, Ahearn said.
He pointed to the end of the couple’s crime spree, when they were apprehended in Washington state, after Tania Washington attempted to ram several police cars with the blue Subaru they’d stolen from Ko five days earlier.
Prosecutors, by contrast, described Darnell Washington as cold and calculating, pointing to his willingness to shoot a policeman in the head, his brazen escape and his desperate state of mind that day: Before Ko’s killing, the couple had stolen a hacksaw from a Kmart in Pinole in a shoplifting attempt that turned into a robbery after they were caught and fought with security staff.
Their stolen white truck was seen driving recklessly around the area. After they reached a safe point, Manoukian said, Darnell Washington sawed off the butt of the shotgun, abandoned the vehicle and ended up at Ko’s house, where the woman was home alone.
“(Ko) was a very petite woman. She was no match for Darnell Washington,” Manoukian told the jury, pointing out that Ko suffered from her injuries and died slowly.