Defendant takes deal in homeless man's death

TACOMA — A second defendant in the beating and stomping death of a homeless man, apparently a rite of passage for a white supremacist group, has accepted a plea agreement.

David Nikos Pillatos, 20, of Tacoma, pleaded guilty Thursday to first-degree murder in the death of Randall Townsend, 42, in exchange for being able to ask that his prison term be no more than about 30 years.

Pierce County prosecutors said they would ask Superior Court Judge Lisa Worswick to sentence Pillatos to as much as life in prison. He initially was charged with aggravated first-degree murder, punishable by execution or a mandatory life prison term without parole.

"There's more than one way to get the sentencing that's warranted in this case," deputy prosecutor Greg Greer said. "Pillatos knows after sentencing, he could be looking at 200 years in prison."

Pillatos' girlfriend, Tristain Lynn Frye, the mother of his child, also had been charged with aggravated murder but pleaded guilty two weeks ago to second-degree murder.

Frye and Pillatos promised to testify against Scotty James Butters, 21, and Kurtis William Monschke, 20, both charged with aggravated murder.

According to documents filed in court, police think the attack on Townsend last March 22 was planned so Frye could earn red shoelaces in the white supremacist movement, indicating an attack causing a minority person to bleed. Townsend, however, was white.

Prosecutors wrote that Frye said Butters hit Townsend with a baseball bat, Pillatos and Butters kicked him in the head with steel-toed boots, and Monschke later hit him with a bat. Frye told investigators she reluctantly kicked Townsend when Pillatos pushed her.

Philip Thornton, Pillatos' lawyer, said Butters and Monschke have been offered the same deal as his client.