Killer's Sobs Delay Testimony
During the guilt phase of his death-penalty trial, Robert Parker sat calmly and quietly in the King County Superior Court room.
Occasionally he'd glance behind himself to catch a glimpse of his mother, then politely smile, despite the seriousness of his case: He would soon be convicted of aggravated murder in the 1995 deaths of two Shoreline women.
But for the past two days, during the trial's penalty phase, Robert Parker has been a different man.
A scared man.
He sobbed so hard Monday that Judge Sharon Armstrong felt compelled to delay the prosecution's opening remarks for several minutes. And yesterday, as he listened to testimony and later testified himself, Parker, 27, clung to a balled-up piece of tissue.
Parker was found guilty Thursday of two counts of aggravated murder in the deaths of Renee Powell, 43, and Barbara Walsh, 53. Each woman had been bound, gagged, strangled and stabbed. Items were stolen from their apartments, and the killer set several fires at each apartment.
Powell was killed Feb. 24, 1995; Walsh was slain March 25.
Defense attorneys Ann Mahoney, Howard Phillips and Marcus Naylor are hoping jurors will sentence Parker to life in prison without possibility of parole instead of death.
"We'll be asking you to show mercy for Robert Parker," Mahoney told jurors Monday before bringing on several relatives, teachers and a psychologist to testify about Parker's personality, childhood and intelligence.
"He got along good with everybody," testified Parker's mother, recalling how her son - who was diagnosed as mentally retarded in the first grade - was fired from McDonald's because he worked too slowly. Parker's IQ is 70 to 75.
His mother also told jurors Parker was never the same after his father was killed in a car accident when her son was 5 or 6.
"It hurt him. It hurt him bad," she said. "He was really close to his father."
Senior deputy prosecutors Regina Cahan and Donald Raz are trying to convince jurors Parker should be executed.
"There are no sufficient mitigating factors to merit leniency," Raz told jurors shortly before calling one victim's mother to the witness stand to talk about how her child lived and loved life.
"She worked her way through school," Carol Powell, mother of Renee Powell, said, adding that her daughter wanted to continue her education and came to Seattle in 1993 to fulfill her dreams.
Carol Powell testified that her daughter, a nurse, loved to write, then read an essay she wrote a few years earlier.
"She was a very, very caring, compassionate, insightful person," Powell said of her daughter.
Parker was scheduled to continue his testimony today.
Ronald K. Fitten's phone: 206-464-3251. E-mail: rfitten@seattletimes.com