Man found guilty in slaying of ex-girlfriend

A jury yesterday rejected a South King County man's claim that a brain abnormality caused him to kill his ex-girlfriend and try to kill his daughter.

Richard Saintcalle, a Haitian immigrant and former Boeing engineer, was convicted of aggravated first-degree murder and attempted murder after a three-week trial in the King County Regional Justice Center in Kent.

Saintcalle, 36, was the first person to be charged with aggravated first-degree murder in King County under a 1998 state law that allows prosecutors to file capital-murder charges against repeat domestic-violence offenders.

"The conviction is important because it shows that a pattern of domestic violence makes one subject to the most serious charge in the state of Washington," said Deputy Prosecutor Tim Bradshaw.

Typically, domestic-violence cases have been charged as first- or second-degree murder, which yield sentences averaging 15 to 25 years in prison. Aggravated murder is the most serious murder charge and the only one that carries the possibility of capital punishment.

Prosecutors, however, did not seek the death penalty, and Saintcalle will face life in prison at his sentencing next month.

Saintcalle's attorney did not dispute that his client killed Keymhare Germain, 32, and critically injured their then-13-year-old daughter when he blasted his way into Germain's apartment, with a shotgun on Aug. 15, 2002.

Instead, he argued, Saintcalle was impaired by brain abnormalities that made rational thought impossible.

Bradshaw also asked jurors to look inside the head of Saintcalle for their answers.

But he predicted they would find something other than illness.

"When you glimpse into his mind, you will get a glimpse of a manipulative, controlling man," Bradshaw had said in his opening statement.

Throughout the trial he painted a picture of a man consumed with jealousy and rage.

When Saintcalle's son, Kirk, was questioned on the stand about the day of the murder, he said he told his friends not to worry about his father's death threats.

"He's just talking out the side of his head," the younger Saintcalle said.

Bradshaw said Saintcalle was driven to his final violence by news that Germain was engaged to another man.

He said Saintcalle sat in the parking lot outside her apartment for hours staring up at her window and calling her dozens of times before he headed upstairs with a shotgun in hand.

His daughter's injury resulted in a permanent disability.

Christine Clarridge: 206-464-8983 or cclarridge@seattletimes.com