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Thread: Christopher Monfort Sentenced to LWOP in 2009 WA Slaying of Police Officer Timothy Brenton

  1. #21
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    High Court hears appeal in case of murdered Seattle cop

    The Washington State Supreme Court could decide if the man charged with killing a Seattle Police officer in 2009 can face the death penalty.
    The trial judge in the aggravated murder trial of Christopher Monfort ruled this year that that King County Prosecuting Attorney Dan Satterberg abused his discretion in his decision to seek the death penalty.

    The high court heard arguments Thurs.

    The prosecutor filed his intent to seek the death penalty before Monfort's defense team turned in a mitigation package. Prosecutor Deborah Dwyer told justices the defense missed multiple deadlines to submit its arguments. In the meantime, she said, the prosecution conducted its own investigation, interviewing family and associates of Monfort.

    "They were telephone interviews, these were people that Mr. Monfort had associated with in college and at work. These were family members, friends, these were employers and teachers, 25 people," said Dwyer.

    Monfort attorney Suzanne Elliot told the high court that the trial judge repeatedly pointed out that the defense was working on a mitigation package. In fact, she said, a mitigation package was ultimately presented to the prosecutor after he made his decision to seek the death penalty.

    "We have presented him with 300 pages of evidence that there is extreme mental distress in this case as well as delusional disorder and we've pled insanity," said Elliot.

    Dwyer acknowledged to justices that the prosecuting attorney received the defense mitigation package.

    "He met with defense counsel and he recently sent a letter saying he was maintaining his position that there are not sufficient mitigating circumstances to merit leniency," Dwyer emphasized.

    Dwyer told the high court that the Legislature deliberately rested the decision on whether to seek the death penalty with elected prosecutors, not with the courts. She asked that the high court vacate the trial judge's decision and allow the trial to go forward as a death penalty case.

    Christopher Monfort is accused of shooting Seattle police Officer Tim Brenton in 2009 on Halloween night, wounding another officer and setting fires to police cars earlier in the month. He has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to charges of aggravated murder, attempted murder and arson.

    http://mynorthwest.com/11/2304564/Hi...ed-Seattle-cop

  2. #22
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    High court restores death penalty in Monfort case

    The state's highest court rules that the prosecutor can ask for the death penalty in the murder case against Christopher Monfort, charged with ambushing a Seattle police officer in 2009.

    King County Superior Court Judge Ronald Kessler, in February, tossed out the death penalty, ruling that the prosecutor abused his discretion and failed to consider factors that might merit leniency.

    But the State Supreme Court Thursday decided that the prosecutor properly used his subjective discretion. The high court also declared that the prosecutor need not conduct "an exhaustive investigation of mitigating circumstances before filing a death penalty notice."

    Monfort will use an insanity defense when he goes to trial for killing officer Timothy Brenton on Halloween 2009. Less than one week later, Monfort was shot and paralyzed in a confrontation with police in Tukwila.

    http://mynorthwest.com/11/2394553/Hi...n-Monfort-case
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  3. #23
    AdamSmith
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    This perp sounds a lot like another Charlie Manson.

    Hurray for the police detective who shot and crippled him. Now the perp knows first hand what a bullet can do.

    Whether he spends the rest of his life in prison maimed in a wheel chair, or is executed, either one is a very good punishment.

  4. #24
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    Monfort trial Jury selection

    The trial of the accused cop killer who faces the death penalty after he allegedly opened fire on two East Precinct officers on Halloween night 2009 and killed veteran officer Timothy Brenton is scheduled to move forward with jury selection in October. According to court records, jurors will begin to be notified early in the month before a planned selection process that is expected to begin on October 27th and could last into December. The trial for accused killer Christopher Monfort is slated to begin in January. In 2013, a judge ruled Monfort could not face the death penalty because county prosecutor Dan Satterberg’s office had “failed to exercise the discretion it is statuatorily and constitutionally obliged to exercise.” That decision was later reversed. Early in 2014, Governor Jay Inslee instituted a moratorium on all executions in the state. Satterberg office continues to pursue a capital case against the defendant.

    http://www.capitolhillseattle.com/20...ury-selection/

  5. #25
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    FINALLY

    Jury selection begins in Seattle cop-killing trial

    Jury selection has begun for the aggravated murder trial of a man accused of killing a Seattle police officer on Halloween five years ago.

    A spokesman for the King County prosecutor's office, Dan Donohoe, says a pool of potential jurors was brought to the Courthouse Friday. Opening statements aren't expected until early January.

    Christopher Monfort has pleaded not guilty. His lawyers have said they'll argue he was insane.

    Prosecutors say they'll seek the death penalty if he's convicted.

    Monfort is accused of killing Officer Tim Brenton and wounding Officer Britt Sweeney on Oct. 31, 2009, as they sat in a patrol car.

    Monfort was wounded by police about a week later during his arrest in Tukwila. He is paralyzed from the waist down and confined to a wheelchair.

    http://www.khq.com/story/26756810/ju...-killing-trial
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  6. #26
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    Death-penalty trials against Monfort, McEnroe to begin Tuesday

    One of two defendants charged with killing six family members in Carnation on Christmas Eve 2007 will stand trial starting Tuesday, the same day the trial of an accused cop killer is to open. The state seeks the death penalty against both men, and their trials will take months.

    By Sara Jean Green
    The Seattle Times

    Joseph McEnroe’s trial starts Tuesday.

    Opening statements in the death-penalty trial of Joseph McEnroe will be Tuesday after the state Supreme Court on Friday denied a defense request to postpone the trial until at least early February.

    McEnroe’s defense team had sought to delay the trial until the high court decides Feb. 3 whether to grant discretionary review of the trial judge’s decision not to allow McEnroe to change his not-guilty plea to not guilty by reason of insanity.

    Last week, the Supreme Court commissioner granted a one-week stay of the proceedings, delaying opening statements. McEnroe’s trial, which was supposed to start Jan. 12, is expected to stretch into May.

    It’s been more than seven years since McEnroe and his former girlfriend, Michele Anderson, were each charged with six counts of aggravated first-degree murder in the Christmas Eve 2007 shooting deaths of Anderson’s parents, brother, sister-in-law, 5-year-old niece and 3-year-old nephew at the parents’ home near Carnation.

    Now, McEnroe’s trial is to begin on the same day opening statements will be presented to a 16-member jury in the death-penalty case against Christopher Monfort, who is accused of fatally shooting Seattle police Officer Tim Brenton on Halloween 2009.

    Monfort, who has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, is also charged with first-degree arson and three counts of first-degree attempted murder, with the latter charges all accusing him of trying to kill other Seattle police officers.

    Monfort, who was shot by detectives and paralyzed below the waist, can’t sit in his wheelchair for more than two hours at a time. As a result, Monfort’s trial will be in session for two hours in the morning and two hours in the afternoon, an unusual schedule that means his trial could go on for six to eight months.

    In McEnroe’s case, a 16-member King County jury was selected on Dec. 19 and the same day, McEnroe’s defense team filed a notice of discretionary review, seeking the Supreme Court’s review of an Oct. 31 ruling by Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Ramsdell that denied a defense motion to allow McEnroe to change his not-guilty plea to not guilty by reason of insanity. Ramsdell had previously denied similar motions to allow McEnroe to change his plea, ruling that there wasn’t a sufficient basis to allow it and that the defense had waited too long to do so.

    On Thursday, the Supreme Court commissioner heard oral arguments on whether to postpone the trial until at least Feb. 3, when the court is expected to decide whether to grant or deny discretionary review on the plea issue. But the defense team — comprised of attorneys Katie Ross, Leo Hamaji and Bill Prestia — will have 30 days to file a motion seeking to modify the high court’s ruling.

    The ruling notes that under state law, the defense must provide written notice to the state that it intends to pursue an insanity defense at arraignment or within 10 days after arraignment — or at a later time if the trial court determines there is good cause to permit it.

    McEnroe was arraigned on Jan. 10, 2008, but the defense didn’t seek to change his plea until Oct. 14, 2014 — more than six years after his arraignment.

    “No explanation has been provided by Mr. McEnroe as to why a stay pending this court’s decision on whether to grant review is needed to insure effective and equitable review or to preserve the fruits of a successful appeal,” reads a letter sent to the parties outlining the commissioner’s ruling. “And there are arguments on both sides which course of action will best conserve judicial resources, with no reason given as to why this court is in a better position than the trial court to weigh this factor.”

    http://seattletimes.com/html/localne...etrialxml.html

  7. #27
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    Monfort jurors told of firearms, bombs found in apartment

    Jurors got their first glimpse Monday of evidence taken from inside Christopher Monfort’s Tukwila apartment, including the assault-style rifle he is accused of using to gun down a Seattle police officer on Halloween night 2009.

    The .223-caliber Kel-Tec rifle was one of six loaded firearms found in Monfort’s fourth-floor unit, along with four pipe bombs and hundreds of rounds of ammunition, according to two Seattle police detectives who testified Monday.

    Since Monfort’s trial for aggravated-first-degree murder started on Jan. 20, the jury has heard testimony about pipe bombs Monfort is accused of detonating at a city maintenance yard and the fire that destroyed police vehicles on Oct. 22, 2009.

    They’ve also heard from numerous law-enforcement officers and other witnesses about the fatal ambush of Officer Tim Brenton, who was seated in his patrol car with a then-rookie officer on Oct. 31, 2009, when a gunman opened fire in Seattle’s Leschi neighborhood.

    Most recently, the jury has heard testimony about what led investigators to Monfort’s apartment complex and the aftermath of a confrontation with police that left Monfort paralyzed below the waist.

    Three members of the Seattle Police Department’s homicide unit have testified that they went to Monfort’s apartment complex six days after Brenton was killed to follow up on a tip about a Datsun 210 — one of three vehicles registered to Monfort and the kind of car used by the gunman in Brenton’s killing.

    Additional testimony revolved around an allegation that Monfort tried to shoot a homicide sergeant but failed to chamber a round in his 9-mm Glock pistol. Monfort was then shot in the stomach and face as he ran along a breezeway toward his apartment door, pointing his handgun at a homicide detective and two sergeants in the parking lot below, the jury has been told.

    Monday’s introduction of evidence found inside Monfort’s apartment signaled the beginning of the final phase of the state’s case against Monfort, 46.

    So far, 300 exhibits, including numerous photos, have been admitted as evidence.

    Monfort has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to five felony charges, including aggravated first-degree murder, the only charge for which death is a possible penalty.

    Detective Donna O’Neal, who is assigned to SPD’s arson and bomb unit, said Monday she unlocked Monfort’s front door using a key from his apartment manager.

    She cracked the door open and a robot was sent inside to scan the interior for any people or booby traps, O’Neal said. The robot detected three improvised explosive devices in the living room — duct-taped cylinders with nails and hobby fuses attached — but the robot fell over before getting any farther, she said.

    A SWAT team was then sent inside to sweep for suspects, followed by O’Neal and another bomb detective who found the fourth pipe bomb on the stove, its fuse laid across a front burner.

    The devices were removed from the apartment and later destroyed, she said.

    Detective Don Ledbetter, a member of the department’s crime-scene investigations (CSI) unit, described the apartment’s floor plan and the locations where police found several firearms, including the Kel-Tec rifle, which was leaned against a stack of tires at the entrance to the living room.

    Senior Deputy Prosecutor Jeff Baird opened a cardboard evidence box and showed jurors the rifle.

    Though it wasn’t explicitly identified as the murder weapon on Monday, jurors have previously heard that Brenton, 39, was killed with the same kind of firearm. Other rifles were recovered from Monfort’s apartment, but none of them were of the same make.

    A 12-gauge shotgun was also propped against the tires, with shotgun shells and numerous rounds of .223-caliber ammunition found in plastic grocery sacks and a cardboard box on the floor nearby. At least four magazines loaded with .223-caliber rounds were also found on the floor.

    Also in the living room, on top of a punching bag, police found a large hunting knife similar to one that was plunged into the roof of a patrol car at the Charles Street maintenance yard two weeks earlier.

    Fliers decrying police brutality were also left at the maintenance yard — and on Monday jurors saw copies of the same fliers that were found in a printer tray inside Monfort’s apartment.

    At the end of the small, galley kitchen, one rifle was propped against the oven, another rested against the opposite counter, and a .45-caliber handgun was found on the countertop next to the sink, along with additional ammo.

    Four copies of a pocket-size Declaration of Independence and U.S. Constitution were fanned out on another counter and were identical to a booklet found in Monfort’s pocket after he was shot.

    In Monfort’s bedroom, a large American flag was laid out over the pastel-colored bedspread, and portraits of Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr. and Che Guevara decorated the walls. In the closet, police found a rifle equipped with a folding bayonet.

    A repair manual for a Datsun 210 was located in a pile of items on Monfort’s balcony, the jury heard.

    Ledbetter’s testimony will continue Tuesday.

    http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-...rts-apartment/
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  8. #28
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    Closing arguments in trial of man accused of killing officer

    SEATTLE - A King County prosecutor has told jurors in the aggravated murder trial of a man accused of killing a Seattle police officer that while the defendant is "not normal," that doesn't make him insane.

    Christopher Monfort's defense team has tried to convince Seattle jurors that the 46-year-old is not guilty by reason of insanity.

    The man has been on trial since January, charged with five felonies, including aggravated murder in the Oct. 31, 2009, fatal shooting of Officer Timothy Brenton. Monfort is also accused of trying to kill other officers, including Brenton's partner.

    The Seattle Times reports that in closing arguments Wednesday, Senior Deputy Prosecutor Jeff Baird said Monfort was a violent extremist who was cold and calculated in his plans to kill police.

    Closing arguments are expected to continue through Friday. Conviction on aggravated murder could bring the death penalty.

    http://www.kxly.com/news/northwest/c...ficer/33266636

  9. #29
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    Jury convicts man of murder in Seattle officer's 2009 death

    SEATTLE — A jury has rejected a man's insanity defense and convicted him of first-degree murder for shooting and killing a Seattle police officer as he sat in a patrol car.

    The King County jury announced Friday it also found Christopher Monfort guilty of two charges of attempted murder and one arson charge. Monfort was found not guilty on one count of attempted murder.

    Superior Court Judge Ronald Kessler said the guilty verdict in Officer Timothy Brenton's 2009 killing means the jury must return to decide if Monfort should spend the rest of his life in prison or be sent to death row, the Seattle Times reported (http://bit.ly/1Qc8lNx).

    The judge ordered jurors to come back June 16 to begin the second phase of the trial.

    Jurors started deliberations Monday after hearing testimony from dozens of witnesses over about four months, with the past two months of the trial focused on Monfort's mental state when he waged what prosecutors called a one-man war against the Seattle Police Department. Monfort pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.

    The defense did not dispute that Monfort killed Brenton and tried to kill other officers. Instead, they argued he was mentally ill, suffering from a delusional disorder. His attorneys claimed Monfort believed if enough police officers were randomly killed, the deaths would put an end to instances of police brutality.

    Senior Deputy Prosecutor Jeff Baird said Monfort is a violent extremist who is "not normal," but he said that does not make him insane.

    "I would suggest there is ample evidence . Mr. Monfort was quite sane when he committed these crimes," Baird said during closing arguments.

    Monfort was accused of setting fire to police vehicles and detonating pipe bombs at Seattle's Charles Street maintenance yard Oct. 22, 2009. He rigged the makeshift explosives to go off as officers responded to the scene, according to charging documents.

    Nine days later, on Halloween night, Monfort ambushed Brenton and his then-rookie partner, Britt Kelly, as they sat in a patrol car in Seattle's Leschi neighborhood.

    Brenton died instantly, and Kelly suffered a minor wound.

    Jurors reached their verdict late Thursday afternoon, but it wasn't read in court until Friday morning. Brenton's position as a police officer performing his official duties is the factor that qualified Monfort for the potential death penalty.

    http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2015...ying.html?rh=1

  10. #30
    Senior Member CnCP Legend CharlesMartel's Avatar
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    Christopher Monfort, left, was convicted of killing Seattle Police Department Officer Tim Brenton, pictured right, during an anti-police crime spree in the fall of 2009.


    Defense: Let Seattle cop's killer 'die on God's time'

    Slain officer's brother tearfully reminisces as final phase of Chris Monfort's trial begins

    Timothy Brenton was a soldier and a father, a Seattle police officer and, in the end, a casualty of one man’s rage.

    The weeks ahead won’t be about him.

    Instead, 15 members of a King County jury that convicted Brenton’s assassin – Christopher Monfort – will likely spend months hearing about the unrepentant cop killer before deciding whether he should face a death sentence. They will hear, again, about his rocky childhood, his revolutionary delusions and his all-consuming obsession with police brutality.

    Empanelled since January, the jury convicted Monfort earlier in June on a host of charges surrounding his bombing of a city maintenance lot, the Halloween 2009 attack that saw Brenton killed and his partner nearly slain, and his attempt to shoot it out with police during his arrest the following month.

    Worst among his crimes, Monfort was convicted of first-degree aggravated murder for killing Brenton. King County prosecutors have asked that Monfort be sentenced to death on that charge; the only other penalty is life in prison without the possibility of parole.

    To win a death sentence, prosecutors must convince each member of the jury that there is no legitimate reason to spare Monfort’s life. Unusually for the criminal justice system, jurors aren’t expected to try to work their way to a consensus regarding a death sentence.

    Instead, as King County Superior Court Judge Ronald Kessler told the jury Tuesday, each juror is expected to reach a “reasoned moral decision.” If a single juror feels Monfort should be spared, even for a reason as abstract as mercy, the correct sentence under state law is life, not death.

    Offering opening statements Tuesday, defense attorney Stacey McDonald waxed philosophical – “Justice is not vengeance but punishment tempered by mercy,” she told the jury – and framed the jurors’ decision as a choice between killing Monfort and allowing him to “die on God’s time.”

    Senior Deputy Prosecutor John Castleton argued that neither Monfort’s upbringing nor his mental problems call for a sentence less severe than death.

    “As he sits here today, he has no remorse for what he did,” Castleton told the jury.

    “He is not sorry at all,” the prosecutor continued. “You know that.”

    In an aside to the jury, Kessler took a moment to deride a Seattle Times editorial that described a jury verdict last month that spared the life of Carnation killer Joseph McEnroe. The Times editorial referred to four jurors’ unwillingness to impose a death sentence as “jury nullification.” Kessler, under the auspices of reminding jurors not to read press coverage about capital punishment, described the jury nullification claim as “something made up by The Seattle Times.”

    Tuesday marked the beginning of the penalty phase of Monfort’s trial, another facet unique to death penalty prosecutions.

    Monfort’s defense team expects to call dozens of witnesses – family and friends, psychologists and the like – in their effort to sway the jury away from execution. It will be something of an encore performance, as the same jury heard and dismissed an insanity defense put forward to explain Monfort’s anti-police crime spree. The question before them now is different, though much of the testimony may be the same.

    The prosecution will call only one witness: Tim Brenton’s brother Matt.

    ‘I miss my friend’

    Taking the stand Tuesday, Matt Brenton described his older brother as a tough man, though not a hard one.

    Born in Seattle and raised in Woodinville, Brenton took care of Matt and their younger sister after their parents split while Tim was in junior high. Their mother worked two jobs to provide for the family.

    “We didn’t have a lot, but she did the best she could,” Matt Brenton said. “We were the poor kids in a rich area.”

    A mild form of muscular dystrophy left Brenton walking on his toes through high school, Matt Brenton said. The Army fixed that.

    Enlisting out of high school, Brenton served in Germany and, during the first Gulf War, fought in Kuwait. Matt Brenton described his brother as an airborne ranger assigned to a reconnaissance unit.

    Mustered out after nearly five years, Brenton was hired on by the Hoquiam Police Department but was laid off before he finished his training. By then, Matt Brenton was an officer in La Conner and able to bring his brother aboard. Brenton transferred in 2000 to the Seattle Police Department.

    “Was this kind of a following in his father’s footsteps kind of thing?” Castleton asked Matt.

    “No,” he responded, sharply.

    “He wanted to do the job for a lot of the same reasons he wanted to do the Army,” Matt Brenton explained. “Service. …

    “He loved it,” Matt continued. “He loved the work. He loved helping people. … My brother was a good cop.”

    Brenton met Lisa while he was in training. A child – Kaylee, now 16 – and a wedding in Las Vegas quickly followed. The couple’s son Quinn came a few years later.

    “He was going to be a different kind of father,” Matt Brenton said. “His kids were not going to grow up in the same kind of environment as we did.”

    Matt Brenton’s composure broke minutes later. The sturdy man, who still looks the patrolman he once was, accepted a box of tissues from the juror nearest the witness box as tears rolled.

    “Tim needs to be here,” Matt Brenton said.

    “I miss my friend.”

    Cop killer meant to scare officers


    Matt Brenton’s hour of testimony represented a rare moment to reflect on the man who was lost on Oct. 31, 2009. On what Monfort took.

    Monfort’s attacks on police began Oct. 22, 2009, nine days before he gunned down Brenton and shot at Officer Britt Kelly, then a trainee under Brenton’s tutelage.

    In the dark of that morning, Monfort cut through the fence surrounding a City of Seattle vehicle maintenance facility on the fringe of the city’s industrial district. Inside the South Charles Street yard, Monfort set fire to a Seattle Police Department mobile precinct – an RV converted into an office on wheels – after posting sheets of paper threatening “a lot of police funerals” in response to police brutality. Another “manifesto” compared police to “King George’s redcoats.”

    Monfort then placed pipe bombs under several parked patrol cars, which detonated as firefighters tried to extinguish the burning command center. An 8-inch survival knife was found stabbed into the roof of a patrol car at the Charles Street yard. An American flag was fixed to it.

    With the Charles Street assailant still unidentified, Brenton and Kelly were on patrol in Seattle’s Leschi neighborhood when they were ambushed near the intersection of 29th Avenue East and East Yesler Way.

    The officers were parked there at 10:06 p.m. on Oct. 31, 2009, when a small car pulled alongside their cruiser. Shots rang out as Monfort opened fire with a semi-automatic, AR-15-style assault rifle.

    Brenton died there, while Kelly managed to get out of the car and fire on their assailant. Investigators found an American flag-patterned bandana nearby, left by Monfort. The bandana, prosecutors said, was Monfort’s “calling card.”

    Police working with witnesses and surveillance video identified the car as an early 1980s Datsun 210. Investigators released a description of the car, which Monfort’s apartment manager recognized as belonging to one of her tenants.

    Detectives arrived at the Terrace Apartments later that day, Nov. 6, 2009, hoping to find Monfort. They didn’t find him, but did locate the car.

    Detective Cloyd Steiger and Senior Deputy Prosecutor Jeff Baird were writing a search warrant for the car as other detectives went to seize it. Detectives and a Tukwila Police Department sergeant had staked out the apartment when Monfort appeared on the building’s breezeway.

    Having spotted the sergeant speaking into a police radio, Monfort walked toward the man’s van. The sergeant drove slowly away from Monfort’s apartment building, while Monfort sauntered after him.

    Detective Rolf Norton, Sgt. Bob Vallor and Sgt. Gary Nelson, all assigned to the Seattle Police Department homicide unit, moved to intercept Monfort as he turned back toward his apartment. As Detective Rolf Norton approached him, Monfort – tense, with his hands stuffed in his jacket pockets – doubled back toward the detective.

    “Police. Take your hands out of your pockets,” Norton told Monfort. “I need to talk to you.”

    “(Expletive) that,” Monfort responded, turning and running for his second-floor apartment. Monfort dashed up the apartment stairwell.

    Nelson rounded the corner of the stairwell and was confronted by Monfort, who leveled a pistol at Nelson’s head and pulled the trigger. The sergeant would later say he heard the sound of the gun’s firing pin striking an empty chamber; Monfort forgot to cock the gun.

    Nelson stumbled backward out of the stairwell, yelling to the detectives that Monfort had a gun. Norton and Vallor crouched behind Vallor’s Ford Crown Victoria in the parking lot below Monfort’s apartment, while Nelson ducked around the corner of the apartment building. They then heard Monfort chamber a round in his pistol.

    A tense minute or two passed before Monfort broke for his apartment. Each of the officers fired twice at the running man, knocking him down and seriously injuring him. Left unable to walk by the shooting, Monfort collapsed on his pistol.

    A search of Monfort’s apartment uncovered four bombs as well as numerous weapons, including the rifle used to kill Brenton. Monfort appeared to have prepared himself for a final stand, building a barricade inside his apartment. A bomb was rigged to blow with the flick of a switch on the stovetop.

    ‘Chris is not solely the worst thing he’s ever done’

    Jailed since he was released from Harborview Medical Center, Monfort was convicted in Brenton’s murder, the arson and the gunplay at his arrest on June 3. He didn’t deny most of the allegations; instead, his attorneys claimed he was insane at the time.

    The rest of Monfort’s trial, which is likely to stretch to August if not beyond, will focus on Monfort’s rough upbringing and mental health problems.

    Monfort’s attorneys have claimed he was insane during the deadly spree, that he was – and remains – locked in a delusional belief that police are a “lawless gang” that can only be stopped by violence. They compare him to someone compelled by a bizarre delusion, seeing demons or hearing voices; Monfort, they say, is equally committed to the view that cops must die.

    Public defenders representing Monfort say he believed himself a revolutionary, like the Founding Fathers. His cause, they say, is ending police brutality. All parties agree he still holds these beliefs.

    Shaped by racist bullying and an unstable family as a youth, Monfort seemed to be flourishing in the years before Brenton’s murder. Monfort, a truck driver for UPS, attended Highline Community College and went on to graduate from the University of Washington.

    “Chris is a man who did a very horrible thing,” said McDonald, one of three public defenders representing Monfort. “But Chris is not solely the worst thing he’s ever done.”

    Monfort’s attorneys claim he was obsessed with police brutality and particularly incensed by King County Deputy Paul Schene’s treatment of a 15-year-old girl. Schene was caught on tape throwing the girl around a holding cell by her hair. Prosecutors tried twice to win an assault conviction against Schene, but abandoned the effort after juries deadlocked.

    Death penalty prosecutions in Washington amount to a pair of trials back-to-back before a single jury. Jurors are first asked to decide whether a defendant committed the charged crimes. Having returned a guilty verdict, the jurors must then decide whether there is any persuasive reason not to impose a death sentence. Prosecutors are asked to prove the negative – that there’s no compelling reason for leniency.

    As a practical matter, a death sentence means little in Washington at present. Gov. Jay Inslee has imposed a moratorium on executions, which had been proceeding very slowly even before Inslee took executive action.

    Since reinstating the death penalty in 1983, five men have been executed in Washington. The most recent – Cal Coburn Brown – died by lethal injection in September 2010, 19 years after he abducted, tortured and killed 22-year-old Holly Washa.

    Nine men sit on death row, the longest-serving of which, Jonathan Lee Gentry, was condemned to die in 1991 for a June 1988 slaying. The most recent addition, Byron Eugene Scherf, was sentenced to death in May 2013 for killing Jayme Biendl, a corrections officer working at the Monroe Correctional Complex.

    In addition to aggravated first-degree murder, Monfort was convicted of arson and two counts of attempted first-degree murder for attempting to kill Kelly and Nelson. He remains jailed.

    http://www.seattlepi.com/local/artic...-s-6331476.php

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