Jury finds Burns, Rafay guilty in '94 triple murder
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After 3-1/2 days of deliberations, a jury of six men and six women yesterday convicted Glen Sebastian Burns and Atif Ahmad Rafay on three counts each of aggravated first-degree murder for the 1994 bludgeoning deaths of Rafay's parents and sister in Bellevue.
Moments before the verdict was read, King County Superior Court Judge Charles Mertel called counsel into his chambers, where, it was later revealed, he relayed a question from jurors asking if they could attend the sentencing. After somber-looking attorneys returned to the courtroom, the defense lawyers whispered to their clients.
Burns shook his head and mouthed the word "sentence" to his family, which was seated directly behind him in the packed courtroom. Defense lawyer Veronica Freitas put her arms around Rafay, hugging him.
At 2:55 p.m., the jury filed into Mertel's courtroom for the last time after hearing nearly six months of testimony.
Jurors found the defendants, both 28, guilty of using a baseball bat to kill Rafay's father, Tariq; mother, Sultana; and developmentally disabled sister, Basma, on a July night almost 10 years ago.
The case against Burns and Rafay was marked by controversy and delay from the beginning. It included an undercover Canadian police operation, a years-long extradition battle, an international debate on the death penalty, and a jailhouse sex scandal involving Burns and his former public defender.
Throughout the trial, the state argued Burns and Rafay committed the slayings in order to cash in on a $500,000 inheritance. Prosecutors said their case came down to physical evidence at the Rafay home, the unwilling but damaging testimony of the defendants' best friend, and videotaped confessions obtained by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) during a five-month undercover operation that led to the arrests of the pair a year after the slayings.
Jurors yesterday agreed there were two aggravating factors — that the murders were committed for money and were part of a common scheme or plan — which means Burns and Rafay can only be sentenced to three consecutive life terms with no possibility of parole.
Despite the foreshadowing in the jurors' request to attend the sentencing, both Burns and Rafay seemed incredulous as the word "guilty" was repeated six times. Rafay sat with his head down, slowly opening and closing his eyes, looking stricken. Burns stared at the jury with his jaw slack, shaking his head.
One juror, Steve Wilson, met Burns' stare as he answered "yes" when the judge polled jurors, asking them if the verdict was both their own verdict and the verdict of the jury as a whole.
"I wanted to say it to his face. I wanted to say, 'I'm an honest man and that's my honest opinion,' " Wilson said later, after the judge told jurors they could answer questions from lawyers and reporters.
Freitas, one of Rafay's attorneys, said her client will appeal. "We're very disappointed," she said, adding that the issues Rafay plans to raise on appeal include allegations of prosecutorial misconduct and the judge's decision to allow incriminating, videotaped statements captured by the RCMP into evidence.
Burns' family and defense team declined to talk to reporters as they left the courtroom.
The defense argued during the trial that Burns and Rafay falsely confessed because they believed that if they didn't, they'd be killed by men they thought were big-money mobsters.
Some jurors remained in court to speak about the case afterward. One female juror, who didn't give her name, said they arrived at their relatively quick verdict because "we just found the evidence against them overwhelming." Jurors also said they didn't buy the defense's argument that Burns and Rafay were coerced into making false statements.
"Not once did Burns or Rafay look intimidated or scared to me," Wilson said, referring to the videotaped confessions given to undercover operators whom he described as "masterful" — despite their expletive-laced language.
Wilson became teary talking about Basma Rafay, who was autistic and could not speak, but who fought her attackers and died hours after the assault. "I hope somebody finds the time to say, 'Basma got her justice,' " he said.
Though convinced of the defendants' guilt, many jurors said convicting the two young men was one of the hardest things they've ever done. "It was extremely difficult. They had such promise," juror Patrick Olsen said.
Immediately after the verdict, King County senior deputy prosecutor James Konat telephoned the RCMP sergeant who posed as a crime boss in the elaborate scenarios that led to Burns' and Rafay's arrests in Vancouver, B.C., in July 1995.
"... Your streak is intact, my friend. Guilty, guilty, guilty all along the line, " Konat told the sergeant. He said the sergeant responded by saying, "Another day at the office."
Konat and his trial partner, senior deputy prosecutor Roger Davidheiser, left the courtroom to face a crush of television cameras. Konat said evidence from the RCMP investigation and Burns' decision to testify in his own defense in the last days of the lengthy trial "played a huge part" in the jury's verdict.
"I don't think Mr. Burns was convicted (simply) because of his testimony ... I think he would have been convicted either way," Konat said, adding Burns' "tale of his false confession" on the witness stand was "almost as sordid" as what he told the undercover Canadian police in describing how he killed the Rafay family.
Both prosecutors said an appeal in a case like this is almost automatic, but believe the verdicts will stand. Konat, who came under fire during closing statements last week after saying the Rafay slayings were worse than the recent beheading of an American civilian in Iraq, said he was "not at all" worried his comment would constitute grounds for an appeal.
Davidheiser said had it not been for the RCMP investigation, which included some 4,000 hours of audio- and videotaped surveillance of the defendants, Burns and Rafay "would have gotten away with murder."
"There's really no celebrating in a case like this," Davidheiser said. "A family's been wiped out and two young men have lost their lives" to prison.
Sara Jean Green: 206-515-5654 or sgreen@seattletimes.com
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