Judge denies retrial of man twice convicted in 2002 murder of Marysville teen

EVERETT, Wash. (AP) — A Snohomish County judge has denied a retrial for a man convicted twice in the 2002 killing of an 18-year-old Marysville woman.


The Daily Herald reports (https://goo.gl/BffVLk ) Superior Court Judge Linda Krese issued the ruling Tuesday, declining 35-year-old John Whitaker's request.

Krese concluded that Whitaker received a fair and public trial and that the verdict should stand. A jury convicted Whitaker in June of the aggravated murder of Rachel Burkheimer, who was kidnapped and fatally shot by several young men.

Whitaker's lawyers had claimed the trial was flawed and that the only remedy was a redo.

Whitaker had been serving a life sentence for the crime until 2013, when a state appeals court overturned his 2004 conviction and granted him a new trial. He was then convicted in June 2016.

He is set to be sentenced Friday. The Herald said that will be 14 years to the day after Burkheimer was shot to death by her ex-boyfriend, John “Diggy” Anderson.

Whitaker was convicted of taking part in Burkheimer’s kidnapping and prosecutors said he helped dig her grave in the Cascade foothills.