Court proceedings started Tuesday to decide whether a teen accused of executing five members of his family in Fall City in 2024 will be tried in juvenile court
Court proceedings started Tuesday to decide whether a teen accused of executing five members of his family in Fall City in 2024 will be tried in juvenile court or moved to the adult system.
A judge ordered the media to not show the boy's face or name him. Attorneys for the now 17-year-old laid out allegations of severe abuse in the home preceding the murders.
“This was a complex home life, as abusive home lives are often complex," defense attorney Amy Parker said.
FALL CITY FAMILY MURDERS | PREVIOUS COVERAGE
Parker said the boy's parents - Mark and Sarah Humiston - espoused extreme religious beliefs and taught their children anti-government conspiracies.
“He was taught about the illuminati that it was real, that 9/11 was a conspiracy and he believed it," Parker said. "His parents told him the government and social system would collapse and so the kids had go-bags packed to move to Idaho at a moment’s notice to be prepared to rise up against a tyrannical government and protect the family.”
Parker alleged Sarah Humiston in particular was physically abusive to the children and withheld food from them while teaching them that disobedience to her would send them to hell.
"The psychological abuse was even more intense," she said. “Sarah would wake up the children randomly in the night and accuse them of cheating even though they hadn’t.”
The boy, who was 15 at the time of the murders, is accused of shooting his father, then his siblings, and finally kicking down a bathroom door and executing his mother as she hid behind a toilet.
Prosecutors argued the teen had the necessary planning, foresight, and concealment after the killings to be tried as an adult.
"He deliberately destroyed his family," said Jamie Kvistad, a senior deputy prosecuting attorney with King County. “He meticulously staged the scene to falsely claim that his 13-year-old brother was responsible.”
Investigators allege the teen placed the gun in the hand of the 13-year-old brother, then fired a shot into his head to make it look like a suicide.
The teen then took a shower, changed clothes, and then used his father's cell phone to call 911 and report the shootings, which he blamed on the brother, according to court records.
An 11-year-old sibling survived being shot in the head and told police she played dead inside the home.
“His surviving sister recounted how she saw him checking the bodies of their younger siblings lying in the hallway to see if they were dead," Kvistad said.
Kvistad said the boy was "methodical" as he carried out the murders and should be tried in adult court.
Tuesday's hearing - known as a decline hearing - was the first day of proceedings that are expected to last several weeks.
Judge Veronica Galvan has overseen the case from the start and will decide whether the case will remain in the juvenile system or be transferred to adult court.
