Double-Murder Trial To Start

WALLA WALLA - Jury selection begins tomorrow in the double-murder trial of a College Place teenager accused of tying up his sister and her best friend and then suffocating them with plastic bags.

Attorneys for Daniel Betournay, 15, plan to argue that the teenager had "diminished capacity" at the time of the slayings, which would mean that he didn't intend to kill the girls or premeditate the slayings, Prosecutor Joe Golden said.

Betournay is charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the Dec. 14 deaths of his sister April and her friend Beth Garbe, both 14.

In February, a judge ordered Betournay tried as an adult in Walla Walla County Superior Court. He faces up to 52 years in prison if convicted of both counts of first-degree murder.