Emotional testimony in trial of Michele Anderson, accused of killing 6 family members

SEATTLE -- Michele Anderson, accused of killing six members of her family, faced a jury on Monday for the first time.

Anderson’s sister, Mary Victoria, took the stand and said her sister threatened to kill her parents in the past but she didn’t take it seriously.

Mary Victoria said she did tell their parents about Anderson’s rants when they happened.

“Who thinks family is going to kill family? So I didn’t think it was serious, she was angry,” Mary Victoria said.

The prosecution gave their opening statement Monday morning and then called the lead detective who was at the scene of the horrific slayings.

Jurors saw video of the bullet-riddled Carnation home where six members of one family lay dead on Christmas Eve 2007.

“Their only mistake is to be related to this woman, Michele Anderson,” prosecutor Scott O’Toole said.

O’Toole argued that greed motivated Michele to plot the mass murder of her parents, Wayne and Judy Anderson, her brother Scott Anderson, sister-in-law Erica Anderson and their two small children, Olivia and Nathan.

Anderson lived on her parent’s property in a mobile home for free.

O’Toole said Anderson and boyfriend Joseph McEnroe shared that mobile home. Both had quit their jobs and were angry they were asked to pay rent. During her confession, detectives say, Anderson also claimed her brother Scott owed her money.

“In fact, Anderson mentioned money as the motive more than 35 times in the course of that interview,” O’Toole said.

The prosecution says Anderson picked a fight with her father before shooting him.

When her gun jammed, detectives say, McEnroe shot Wayne again and turned the gun on Judy.

“She saw that Wayne was shot in front of her and she began to scream,” O’Toole said of Judy Anderson.

Detectives say Michele and McEnroe disposed of the bodies in a backyard shed and waited for Scott’s family to show up. O’Toole said Michele then shot her brother, who tried to fight her off.

“Erica was on the couch holding her children when her husband was shot in the face,” O’Toole said.

Shot multiple times, Erica tried desperately tried to call 911 but the call got disconnected seconds in.

The prosecution played that 911 call for the court, where you could faintly hear screaming for a few seconds.

“In her final, furious last moments of her life, Erica Anderson looked into the eyes of the woman and man killing her family,” O’Toole said.

Erica had 5-year-old Olivia tucked by one side, O'Toole said, and 3-year-old Nathan, still in diapers, climbed on top of his mom in the last moments of his life.

“He placed his head against her chest next to her heart and then Joseph McEnroe fired a bullet into Nathan’s head,” O’Toole said.

O’Toole described how an autopsy found a strand of Nathan’s hair and bone matter inside Erica’s lungs.

Erica’s mother, Pam Mantle, said that eight years later, the gruesome details haunt her and she is still asking why.

“They are talking about greed and money, but there has to be something more than that, I mean, to kill 6 people,” Mantle said.

Mantle is expected to take the stand Tuesday.

Joseph McEnroe was convicted of the murders but spared from the death penalty.

After McEnroe’s trial, the prosecution announced they would not seek the death penalty against Michele Anderson.