Murder trial begins in case of missing man

King County prosecutors not only believe Hartanto Santoso was the victim of a gruesome murder — even though his body has not been found — but that Kim Mason stabbed him to death and later tried to make it more difficult to identify the body.

Mason's attorneys, though, say there's no evidence connecting their client to Santoso's presumed death. Instead, they told jurors during opening statements yesterday, they believe Mason was a "ready-made suspect" implicated by a former girlfriend who was granted immunity in exchange for her testimony against him.

"Somebody else was in that room with Santoso, and it was someone other than Kim (Mason)," defense attorney Howard Phillips told jurors, who will decide whether Mason is guilty of aggravated first-degree murder.

If convicted, the 23-year-old Redmond man — a professional kickboxer and the son of a retired Seattle assistant police chief — could face life in prison without the possibility of release, King County prosecutors' spokesman Dan Donohoe said.

The case is remarkable not only because Santoso's body has never been found but because of allegations that Mason choked Santoso and threatened to kill him three weeks before he disappeared in February 2001. Santoso was to testify against Mason, with whom he'd had a sexual relationship, in a pending criminal trial and had gone to court to get a no-contact order against him.

Santoso, a 31-year-old nursing assistant and immigrant who regularly had sent money home to Indonesia, vanished Feb. 19, 2001, from his Kirkland apartment. Prosecutors say Mason broke into Santoso's apartment that night, stabbed him, took the body somewhere and drove Santoso's car to a Seattle-Tacoma International Airport parking lot to make it appear Santoso had left the country.

"Meet me at the airport and bring a change of clothes," senior deputy prosecutor Scott O'Toole said, quoting what Mason's former girlfriend, Marina Madrid, told police Mason said before leaving for Santoso's apartment that night. Madrid later told police Mason disappeared for three days after the slaying and, when he returned, told her he'd gone to decapitate Santoso to make identifying his body more difficult, O'Toole said.

Blood and DNA evidence, the knife police believe is the murder weapon, and witness testimony will form the bulk of the state's case, the prosecutor told the jury of eight men and four women.

O'Toole painted a picture of Mason — whom he repeatedly referred to by his kickboxing name Kim 'The Sensation' Mason — as a controlling young man "who outwardly had it all." But O'Toole said Mason was in debt and desperate for money — and, later, was desperate to avoid prison on charges he had kidnapped and assaulted Santoso.

Those charges stemmed from a Jan. 23, 2001, incident in which authorities contend Mason lured Santoso to his Redmond apartment and choked him to unconsciousness. Santoso told police he awoke bound and gagged with duct tape. He said Mason pointed a 9-mm handgun at him and told him to write a $700 check.

Mason was arrested and charged a few days later.

But Phillips, Mason's lawyer, said Mason had no reason to kill Santoso: He'd already admitted to police that he'd choked Santoso, saying the assault was a reaction to an unwanted sexual advance. None of Mason's blood or fingerprints was found in Santoso's apartment, Phillips said. Bloody shoe prints inside Santoso's apartment were too big to be Mason's, and a bloody palm print discovered on the fender of Santoso's car doesn't belong to Mason either, he said.

Essentially, the state's case "comes down to 'she said, he said,' " Phillips said, referring to Madrid and his client.

"If this wasn't so serious, this would almost be comical," Phillips said as he clicked his computer mouse in a slide presentation to the jury. "Marina got immunity so she said what they wanted her to say."

Phillips urged the jury to "hold Mr. O'Toole to his burden" in proving Mason's guilt beyond reasonable doubt. "Don't fill in the blanks, don't fill the holes" for prosecutors, Phillips said.

Mason's trial before King Superior Court Judge Michael Fox is expected to last six to eight weeks.

Sara Jean Green: 206-515-5654 or sgreen@seattletimes.com