Witness Tells Court Of Night Everett Man Was Slain

EVERETT - When he was drinking heavily last year, 16-year-old Justin Ritchie said he occasionally had blackouts during which he was completely oblivious to the world.

But despite binging on beer all day and even more partying the night of Dec. 15, Ritchie testified in court yesterday that his memory remains clear on these crucial events: that night he helped Michael Skay, 16, and Steven Eggers, 19, clean a blood-spattered apartment in Snohomish, carry their beating victim to the trunk of his car and then take him to the Skykomish River, where he was dumped.

Blair Nixon Scott's body was found two days later.

Ritchie, whose testimony came during the second day of the Skay and Eggers murder trial in Snohomish County Superior Court, is the key prosecution witness. He is the only person who can testify firsthand to what happened the night that Scott, 27, of Everett, was killed.

Both Skay and Eggers are charged with aggravated- first-degree murder. If convicted, they could face life in prison without parole.

Prosecutors say the killing was motivated by robbery; the two allegedly wanted Scott's money and car keys. Eggers' attorney has said the killing was the result of a drunken panic.

Yesterday, Skay and Eggers' attorneys questioned some details of Ritchie's testimony, saying he contradicted his earlier statements to police, but Ritchie, who is not charged in the case, stubbornly stood by his story.

After a night of hard drinking, Skay and Eggers put a sudden end to the partying when they told everyone except Scott to leave the apartment early in the morning of Dec. 16, Ritchie said. Ritchie, along with a handful of his friends, ended up on the front sidewalk. Most eventually left, leaving only Ritchie and a friend.

"I heard the music go up, loud enough that you can hear it, and then a lot of banging around," Ritchie said.

At some point, the friend left and Ritchie was alone on the sidewalk. He heard someone yell in the apartment and thought it was his friend. He went upstairs to the apartment to help him, and when he knocked on the door, Ritchie said Eggers pulled him inside.

"He told me to help him clean, otherwise he'd kill me," Ritchie

testified.

Inside the apartment, Skay was already wiping off blood, and Ritchie was instructed to clean up any fingerprints. Blood was splattered on the walls, the blinds and the floor, Ritchie said.

Eggers then told Skay and Ritchie to take the blood-covered Scott, who was unconscious and hogtied with a telephone cord and gagged with black bandanna, to the car.

"I said, `I don't want to,' but I did it anyway," Ritchie said. As they took Scott down the stairs, Ritchie said he heard him moaning.

After putting Scott in the trunk, Ritchie started walking away when Eggers told him to get in the car. Still fearing for his own safety, he did as he was instructed.

They drove toward Monroe, and during the ride the three of them exchanged "high fives." Ritchie, who heard Scott's moaning throughout the ride, said he joined in congratulatory gestures because he "didn't want to get killed."

He said that he later purposely didn't tell police that he took part in the high fives because he was afraid they'd think he was part of the crime.

When they reached the river's edge, Ritchie refused to get out of the car. "I didn't want to see what they were going to do," he said.

But he couldn't block out what he heard. After taking Scott out of the trunk, Ritchie said he heard him ask his attackers if he was going to die. Eggers said yes, Ritchie testified. Scott then asked if he was going to die quickly, and again Eggers said yes, Ritchie said.

Ritchie then heard a series of thumps that sounded like Scott getting kicked, and he heard Scott yell in pain. Although he kept looking ahead, Ritchie said that in his peripheral vision he saw shadows go toward the embankment. When Skay and Eggers returned to the car, they drove off.

Later, when Eggers had split off, Ritchie said he asked Skay why they had killed Scott.

"He said it wasn't supposed to go that far, he couldn't believe it had happened," Ritchie testified. "He kept saying it went too far."