Terry Rose, Man Plead Not Guilty In Murder Plot -- Third Defendant Is Allowed To Delay Plea

BELLEVUE

A Bellevue wife and a young man pleaded not guilty this morning to charges in what police say was a murder-for-hire plot against the woman's husband that, instead, resulted in the slaying of her daughter.

Teresa Rose and Jason McDaniels appeared together with Travis Hanson in King County Superior Court in Seattle for arraignment on one count each of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder. If convicted, each could be sentenced to 20 years or more in prison.

Hanson, who does not yet have an attorney, was allowed to postpone entering a plea until Wednesday.

Rose's attorney, Kathy Lynn, said her 44-year-old client "was very upset. She was forced to go to arraignment standing next to one of the men accused of killing her daughter."

Prosecutors say Terry Rose enlisted McDaniels and his friend Hanson, to kill her husband, Jerry, because he was verbally abusive and she wanted to move back to Hawaii with her 15-year-old daughter, Sarah Starling.

Police say Starling was integrally involved in the scheme, even enlisting McDaniels, 20, a former boyfriend, for the job. McDaniels and Hanson, 17, were offered life-insurance money, an SUV and a plane ride to Hawaii if they would strangle the 56-year-old Rose and make it look like a random burglary.

As it turned out, Rose didn't have much life-insurance coverage, or any other valuable assets, police say.

Nonetheless, prosecutors allege, McDaniels and Hanson lay in wait to complete their plan at the Rose home near Bellevue Community College in mid-February while Terry Rose, Starling and one of her teenage friends took a trip to Bellevue Square.

But Rose entered his house through a different door than expected, and McDaniels and Hanson aborted their ambush, prosecutors say.

Then the plan came crashing down March 9 or 10, prosecutors say, when McDaniels and another friend, Thomas Mullin-Coston, strangled, beat and stabbed Starling to death and dumped her body in Kingsgate Park north of Kirkland. Her body was found March 10.

McDaniels and Mullin-Coston have pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in Starling's death. But police say Mullin-Coston wasn't involved in the plan to kill Jerry Rose.

Similarly, police say Terry Rose had nothing to do with Starling's slaying. Court documents suggest McDaniels may have either been mad at Starling for breaking up with him or may have intended to thwart Terry Rose's plan, kill the whole family and swipe their belongings.

Terry Rose, McDaniels and Mullin-Coston are held in the King County Jail. The teenage Hanson is charged as an adult, though he is being held in county juvenile detention for the time being.

Rose's family and friends say they can't believe the charges and doubt she was unhappy enough to kill her husband. McDaniels' friends have said they don't think he would ever hurt a woman and refuse to believe any of the charges.

Mullin-Coston's lawyer has said he expects to prove Mullin-Coston didn't kill Starling.

Hanson's family has refused comment.

All three young men charged in the case have extensive juvenile records of crime and delinquency. Starling had none, and her mother has no criminal record in Washington. Neither does Jerry Rose.

Ian Ith's phone message number is 206-464-2109. His e-mail address is iith@seattletimes.com