Shriner Guilty -- Jury Convicts Him In Attack On Boy

TACOMA - Earl Shriner was found guilty today of raping, assaulting and attempting to kill a 7-year-old boy near the child's home in South Tacoma last May.

The jury of six men and six women deliberated six hours before announcing in Pierce County Superior Court that it had found Shriner guilty of two counts of first-degree rape, one count of first-degree attempted murder and one count of first-degree assault.

Shriner, 40, sat impassively as the verdict was read. His mother, Dolores Shriner, wept and held her head in her hands.

``Appeal!'' her other son, John Shriner, said as he left the courtroom.

Helen Harlow, the boy's mother, clasped the boy's father tightly and, while crying, mouthed ``guilty'' as the verdicts were read.

``Sometimes the truth does prevail,'' Harlow said. ``Praise God it's over.''

The boy's father said: ``Hardly a day goes by that we don't think of the incident. Now we'll try to live a life as normal as possible.''

The boy's parents are divorced, and the father lives in California.

The boy's grandmother, Betty Foote, said she took Dolores Shriner's hand in court today. ``I feel just as sorry for her, just as I would for any mother,'' Foote said.

Sentencing is scheduled for March 26. Prosecutors

have said they would ask for an exceptional term that would keep Shriner in prison for the rest of his life.

Shriner has a 24-year record of assaults on young people, dating back to the killing of a 15-year-old schoolmate when Shriner was 16. He was too young to be charged with homicide under state law then, but instead was committed to the Rainier School in Buckley and then Western State Hospital in Steilacoom in an attempt at rehabilitation. His adult crimes include convictions for assault and kidnapping.

If Judge Thomas Sauriol finds factors warranting an exceptional sentence, the judge could give Shriner life in prison on any of the current charges, based on Shriner's prior convictions, prosecutors said.

The May 20 attack on the boy, in which he was raped, choked and left for dead in the woods after his penis was severed, provoked outrage throughout the state.

It was one of the cases that fueled a move in Olympia for a new law to give stiffer sentences and treatment programs for sex offenders and more assistance for victims. The measure, which has passed both the House and Senate, also includes a civil-commitment system that could keep some offenders locked indefinitely in treatment facilities.

Pierce County Prosecutor John Ladenburg said earlier that Shriner could not be sentenced under the proposed sexual-predator law if it went to Gov. Booth Gardner and was signed before Shriner's sentencing. Ladenburg said he understood that the law would have to have been in effect at the time of the offense.

Defense attorneys said today they would ask for a new trial, but did not indicate immediately on what grounds.

``Some parents would turn against their children,'' Dolores Shriner said. ``I would never ever do that. He is not guilty.''

The only word Earl Shriner publicly uttered during his trial came yesterday after the jury had been given the case and left the courtroom.

``Mr. Shriner, I'm satisfied you had a fair trial in this case,'' Sauriol told him.

``Uh-huh,'' Shriner replied, and nodded.

Shriner did not take the stand during his six-day trial. He had pleaded not guilty.

Jurors, who were selected from Whatcom County because of intense pre-trial publicity in the Tacoma area, were not immediately available for comment. But Pierce County Deputy Prosecutor Jim Roche said jurors told him their biggest difficulty was deciding whether Shriner had intended to kill the boy.

The jury sifted through more than 50 pieces of evidence and reviewed testimony from 35 witnesses.

Pierce County Deputy Prosecutor Barbara Corey-Boulet told the jurors in closing arguments that the boy's identification of Shriner as his attacker was the strongest evidence of Shriner's guilt.

The boy, who is now 8, identified Shriner in court last week and during interviews with police days after the attack.

Corey-Boulet said the boy's identification was corroborated by other evidence, including a yellow strap found in the defendant's jacket that doctors said could have been used to choke the boy.

Corey-Boulet also argued that Shriner had intended beforehand to kill the boy because he came equipped with knives and wires and had prepared a secluded spot in the woods for the attack.

Shriner's defense attorneys, who rested their case without calling any witnesses, argued there were inconsistencies in the prosecution's case that proved Shriner was wrongly accused.

Defense attorney Lloyde Alton argued that the boy's description of his attacker's clothing did not match what witnesses said Shriner was wearing before and after the attack.

No blood was found on a copper box at the back of Shriner's bike, which the boy said was used to store weapons his assailant used - nor was blood found on a knife which prosecutors argued was used to cut off the boy's penis.

Alton also said footprints taken from the area of the crime did not match the shoes Shriner was wearing. And while other witnesses said that Shriner had difficulty pronouncing his R's, the boy testified he had noticed nothing unusual about his attacker's speech.

Alton said the boy might have mistakenly identified Shriner and Shriner's bicycle from seeing Shriner around the South Tacoma neighborhood where they both lived.

Corey-Boulet said the boy's description of the clothing was probably different because he was fading in and out of consciousness and because the lighting in the woods may have made the colors appear different.

The prosecution rested its case without introducing what was at one time considered a key piece of evidence: genetic testing of a bloodstain found on Shriner's jacket. State crime-lab tests have determined the blood had a different enzyme than Shriner's and one similar to the boy's.

-- Times South bureau reporter Anh Do contributed to this report.