Schrader Guilty In Trestle Murder

Brian Schrader had a troubled expression on his face yesterday as he walked toward the courtroom where he was on trial for the slaying of Michael Schuerhoff, 18, of Mill Creek last year.

He was surrounded by four police officers, handcuffed, and seemingly oblivious to the slew of television cameras fast approaching him.

As he passed his mother, he said: "They sure found me guilty . . . quick."

His mother, sister and friend shrugged off his words. They smiled. They were still hopeful that Schrader would be acquitted.

But Schrader was right.

After deliberating for about 1 hour and 15 minutes, the 12-member jury yesterday convicted Schrader of second-degree murder in the death of Schuerhoff, who drowned after he was pushed off a 36-foot-high trestle in Bothell into the Sammamish River on Jan. 2, 1996.

Defense Attorney Jeff Smith said he "absolutely" planned to appeal, saying the jury should have had the option of convicting Schrader of a lesser charge - such as manslaughter - instead of second-degree murder or nothing at all.

As she left the courthouse, King County Senior Prosecuting Attorney Lisa Marchese said it was a fair verdict"because there was nothing accidental about what happened that night." Though yesterday's jury verdict was swift and decisive, the case was not.

Schuerhoff's body was found three days after he was pushed off the abandoned trestle. He was discovered 200 feet downstream in 8 feet of water.

Schrader, then 17, and four of his teenage companions - Benjamin Drake, Lawrence Edinger, Steven Garza and Tyler Wheaton - were implicated in the high-school senior's death, and all were charged with second-degree murder.

What followed, however, was a yearlong labyrinth of plea bargains, changes in lawyers, acquittals for three of the teenagers, a guilty plea to rendering criminal assistance in juvenile court for Wheaton, and Schrader's withdrawal of a guilty plea.

"I'm happy that this part of it is over with," said Peter Schuerhoff, father of the victim, as he hugged another relative minutes after the verdict was rendered. "There is no joy in this . . . but there is closure. And when there is closure, healing follows."

Schuerhoff's mother, Anita said: "I'm happy that somebody is finally accepting responsibility and is having to pay for the choices they made. But to me it is heartbreaking that all these other lives have been destroyed because of the choices that were made."

During closing arguments, a packed courtroom listened quietly as Marchese defined what she described as the key motive.

"Thirty dollars and some marijuana was all Michael Schuerhoff's life was worth to this defendant," Marchese said, repeating a theme she had argued throughout the weeklong trial. "Fear of losing a bet

. . . was more important to this defendant than this young man losing his life."

"The defendant sits before you to answer for taking Michael Schuerhoff's life in a most cowardly, cowardly fashion," Marchese said.

Defense attorney Smith countered by arguing that his client and his friends were guilty of something far less sinister: youth and ignorance.

"This was idiots on parade," Smith said, adding that his client and friends did not plan Schuerhoff's death. "This (was) not a plan. This (was) idle, lockerroom braggadocio."

But Marchese later emphasized to the jury that "stupidity is not a defense. . . . for that matter, age is not a defense . . . and the defendant doesn't get to hide behind the fact that he is a teenager."

Under the standard range for second-degree murder, Schrader faces a prison term of 16 to 21 years. Marchese said she plans to seek a sentence at the high end of the range.