We told you recently that two of the three 2007 West Seattle murder cases both ended with plea bargains instead of trial — Brian Walsh pleaded guilty last month to a reduced charge of second-degree murder for killing “Benny” Reside at Cal-Mor Circle and is awaiting sentencing; Jabarie Phillips pleaded guilty earlier in the year to a reduced charge of manslaughter for killing Dewayne West outside West’s house at 37th/Findlay, and was sentenced last month to 13 years in prison. That leaves the case of the shooting last October 13th inside a car at 59th/Admiral (10/13/07 scene photo at left, arrow points to the car) that killed 33-year-old Francisco Bailey-Ortiz. The suspect, an Alki resident, was 17 when it happened and is now 18; we stopped identifying him when his defense labeled him a victim of child sexual abuse (detailed in our report last October 29th). He has remained in jail, though his bail was cut to $200,000, and we have continued to watch the case through a fairly standard string of hearings, continuations, legal motions, etc. Now, it looks like the case is going to trial; a date’s been set for early October, and a pretrial “omnibus” hearing is scheduled for tomorrow. We checked with the suspect’s lawyer, Robert Perez, today, to find out if there was any chance a plea bargain was in the works for this case too. His reply: “I can assure you there will be no plea bargaining in this case. (The defendant) is not a felon and he has no intention of becoming one based on the victimization that led to this tragedy. He will seek justice from a jury of his peers. The case will go to trial during the week of October 6.”
West Seattle, Washington
28 Thursday
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