Judge finds no misconduct by defense team during Fall City murder crime scene visit
FALL CITY, Wash. — A King County judge determined that defense attorneys did not violate a court order during a visit to the home where a 15-year-old boy is accused of massacring his family in Fall City.
In a motion hearing Monday morning, Judge Veronica Galvan denied the prosecutor's request to obtain data, notes, and photos taken by the defense during the Oct. 29 visit.
“This court finds that there was no misconduct whatsoever," Galvan said. “The defense wanted an opportunity to look at the scene themselves, to have their investigator look at the scene with them, to document things, which they are entitled to do.”
Last month, the King County Prosecuting Attorney's Office alleged the public defenders who were representing the teen had rummaged through the victims' belongings during the unsupervised visit. The prosecution further alleged a bottle of Clorox wipes went missing while the public defenders and their forensic team were allowed access to the house.
During Monday's hearing, Senior Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Jason Brookhyser admitted the Clorox wipes were actually not missing from the home as the prosecution had originally claimed, though he maintained the defense did exceed the scope of Galvan's original order.
"Clearly, there are things that happened in that house that were not permitted by the order," Brookhyser said. "Things were handled in areas where things should not have been touched."
Attorney Kristen Gestaut of the Obsidian Law Offices has since taken over the teen's defense from the King County Department of Public Defense. Gestaut said accusations against the public defenders have 'stained' the case against the teen.
"I am so troubled by what is happening here, I can't even come up with words to respond to it," Gestaut told Judge Galvan. "That the state can be so cavalier as to continue going forward with these ridiculous allegations after what they did warrants, I think, this court's finding of intentional misconduct."
She told Judge Galvan that the team of public defenders have been subjected to harassment and ridicule after the prosecution's allegations were reported by the media. KOMO News first reported the allegations that prosecutors were leveling against the public defenders in mid-November.
"[Prosecutors] have the power to condemn a person," Gestaut said. "I mean the amount of upheaval that this has caused this attorney (public defender Amy Parker) - who's had to completely just avoid looking at social media because it's some of the worst things that you could ever say to a person ... just from reading the commentary to all the articles that were published, on an international level, people are calling for that attorney (Parker), who the state chose to name in their motion, to be disbarred, to be prosecuted, and things far worse that I would never repeat in this court. That allegation single-handedly undermined the public's trust in this court."
Parker originally petitioned Judge Galvan for a visit to the home the week after the Oct. 21 murders of the five members of the Humiston family.
The family's 15-year-old son is accused of shooting his parents, Mark and Sarah Humiston and his three younger siblings; Benjamin, 13, Joshua, 9, and 7-year-old Katheryn. An 11-year-old girl survived the shooting and ran to a neighbor's house where she called 911 and told police her brother had just shot the family.
According to an arrest report, the 15-year-old boy claimed his deceased younger brother was actually the one who shot the family and then killed himself.Defense attorneys have called that theory "forensically viable," despite an autopsy finding the 13-year-old died from multiple gunshot wounds that were fired from farther than two feet away, according to court records.
Galvan noted in court Monday that the defense visit to the home was after it had already been released to the victims' family members and was no longer considered an "active crime scene."
I never thought I'd have to explain the semantics of 'crime scene' versus 'scene of the crime' because everybody thinks that this was still a live crime scene," Galvan said. "It was not—let me repeat—it was not a crime scene any longer, it hadn't been for several days.”
Prosecutors have petitioned to move the teen's case into the adult court system. A hearing to determine whether the case will be moved or remain in the juvenile system is scheduled for June 2025.
A judge has ordered the media to not name the teen suspect. Galvan prohibited the media from filming the teen's face during Monday's hearing.
The King County Department of Public Defense has said in court filings that they transferred the case Gestaut's firm due to a lack of resources, and not because of alleged misconduct during the home visit.