Boy, 12, guilty of murder in Tacoma beating

Chalk-faced with shock, the youngest person ever to face murder charges in this state yesterday listened to a judge find him guilty.

Pierce County Superior Court Judge D. Gary Steiner found the 12-year-old boy and his 13-year-old friend guilty of first-degree murder as accomplices in last summer's beating death of Erik Toews.

The boy in saggy jeans and puffy shoes, his shoulder-length hair unkempt, sat still as the judge ruled that he had wielded a croquet mallet to help beat Toews into unconsciousness. The boy was 11 at the time.

Toews, 30, suffered such a trampling that he died in a Tacoma hospital six days later.

Police say the boys were part of a roving pack of Tacoma teenagers who spent last summer attacking and robbing people in the streets for no reason other than the thrill. The group, ranging in age from 11 to 19, appeared to pick on troubled or disabled people, the judge said. It all ended Aug. 19 with the beating of Toews.

"The youngsters' guilt in this is unique in its enormity," Steiner said yesterday. "(Toews) took the most terrible beating that I've seen in a long time. They planned who would do what, and the victim didn't matter."

Both boys are scheduled for sentencing in January. At most, they could be in a juvenile detention center until they turn 21. Because they were tried as juveniles, The Seattle Times is not publishing their names.

The judge's decision makes the 12-year-old one of the three youngest people in state history to be convicted of murder. In 1995, two 12-year-old Wenatchee boys were convicted of first-degree murder in the shooting death of a migrant worker. They were sentenced to juvenile detention until they turn 21.

In Tacoma yesterday, Steiner dismissed defense attorneys' claims that the boys were impressionable young victims of the worst kind of peer pressure. The attorneys had said the two weren't directly involved in the fatal attack, orchestrated by an older boy. The lawyers also had argued that Toews was technically attacked twice, and that the two were not involved in the fatal beating.

"This was one continuous attack," Steiner countered. "This is assault, and to my mind, it makes very little difference who was at the first scene and who was at the second."

Toews was near Tacoma's Wright Park on his way home from work when he was ambushed. After the group knocked Toews down, he managed to wriggle free and run for about 100 yards before the older boys ran him down and beat him to death.

Four older males charged — Justin Hegney, 16; Robert Hernandez, 17; Jesse Hill, 15; and Terrance Hunt, 20 — will be tried together as adults in November.

"I felt that the judge was able to see through all of the twisting of who did what," said Colleen Cornell, Toews' mother. "But today, I just want to go home and think about Erik."

As the judge spoke, the boys were motionless, staring at their hands and avoiding eye contact. Neither spoke to their families as they were led away in handcuffs.

The younger boy's mother said her son will appeal the ruling. She said the judge ignored inconsistent testimony and singled out her son while others walked free.

"I was prepared for this, but I didn't expect the worst," she said. "Now I have to go home and explain to my younger child that all the praying and hoping and finger-crossing and everything else isn't going to change the fact that her brother's not coming home."

Although she disagrees with the decision, she said, she doesn't want to diminish the grief of Toews' mother, Cornell.

"Time after time I try to put myself in her shoes," she said. "But I realize that one day, my son will come home and hers won't."

Lisa Heyamoto can be reached at 206-464-2779 or at lheyamoto@seattletimes.com.

Seattle Times staff reporter Ian Ith contributed to this report.