Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - 11-Year-Old Girl Plays Dead As Brother Murders Family: Prosecutor

Starting point is 00:00:00 Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. A mother, father, and three of their children are shot in cold blood and detectives say the couple's 15-year-old son is to blame for the heinous crime. I have the disturbing details out of Washington State and how the teen's sister escaped the horror. Welcome to Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy. A 15-year-old boy is in jail in King County, Washington, facing charges for the premeditated murder of his parents and three younger siblings.

Starting point is 00:00:37 His 11-year-old sister survived, and I'm going to tell you how very shortly. This crime has shocked the community in Fall City, Washington, outside of Seattle. Documents charging the 15-year-old with the murders say on Monday, October 21st, he called 911 with a cover story blaming his 13-year-old brother, Benjamin, for the murders. An affidavit says, Humiston sounded out of breath and stated, he just shot my whole family and committed suicide too. During the ensuing conversation with the 911 operator, Humiston stated that his brother, BDH, had killed their family and taken himself out and that he, Humiston, was currently hiding in the bathroom on the main

Starting point is 00:01:18 floor of the house. Humiston stated that a possible motive for Benjamin Humiston killing everyone is that he had been caught looking at pornography the night before and that he was about to get into a lot of trouble. At the same time the teenager's 11-year-old sister had run to a neighbor's home, she told the neighbor that her brother had shot her and her family members and that she played dead by holding her breath and then escaped through a window. The girl told investigators that her brother had recently gotten into a lot of trouble for failing some tests at school.

Starting point is 00:01:50 She described her father as keeping a Glock pistol in a small lockbox, which he would sometimes put by the front door so he could bring it to work. The sister told interviewers that, of all the children, her brother was the only one who knew the combination to the Glock lockbox. Investigators noted in the affidavit that the 13-year-old brother, Benjamin Humiston, that's the younger brother the 15-year-old accused shooter had blamed in the 911 call, had died of multiple gunshot wounds. But they found Benjamin with a gun in his hand. The affidavit said, a black Glock handgun was in his left hand that was lying on his chest. No apparent blood spatter was observed on Benjamin Humiston's left hand or the Glock. In the master bedroom, I saw a large amount of blood on the carpet to the right of the bed. The blood continued into the ensuite bathroom. The doorframe of the bathroom was splintered as if

Starting point is 00:02:43 it had been locked, then forced open from the bedroom side. On the back of the bathroom was splintered as if it had been locked, then forced open from the bedroom side. On the back of the bathroom door were several areas of blood that appeared to be handprints. Jennifer Humiston, the mother of the children, was found dead in the bathroom and died from two gunshot wounds. Her husband Mark, the father of the children, had been shot four times. Joshua, who was nine, and Catherine, who was seven, had also been shot. Neighbors told local media that the children were homeschooled and that the family was active in the community and they seemed perfect. Mark Humiston worked for an engineering firm in Seattle. The company released a statement to the AP saying, we are blindsided and saddened by the tragic events that have led to the loss of a

Starting point is 00:03:24 respected colleague, mentor, and friend, as led to the loss of a respected colleague, mentor, and friend, as well as the loss of immediate family members. Mark's leadership and vision were integral within our firm, and he will be greatly missed. As the community and family members mourn the loss of the Humistons and try to care for the surviving daughter, it's not clear whether the teen will be tried as an adult, although that's what prosecutors want. A status conference for the teen's case is set for January and the process to determine whether the teen's case will be moved to adult court could take up to a year. Philip Dubé works as court appointed counsel in California. Philip, this case, the allegations are absolutely awful. We have a 15-year-old boy accused of

Starting point is 00:04:07 murdering, slaughtering his entire family, except for a sister who played dead. I mean, and he's accused of doing this in a very cold and premeditated fashion. Oh, yeah. And I'll be honest with you, Anjanette, I've seen a lot of homicides in my career, but this one is up in the top five as taking the cake. This is five deaths, the parents, three siblings, and a fourth sibling through the grace of God survived. We don't see these very often. Now, granted, we do see plenty of child deaths where the leading cause is by firearm. In fact, I think just this year alone, we're not even at the end of the year, there have been 1,100 child deaths because of firearms. And I believe there's been over 450 mass shootings.

Starting point is 00:04:59 So the real question is, why is this happening? And by the way, that data is for the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. They keep statistics on this, and I think it's through the hospitals across the country. But the real question is, why is it happening? Is it that kids are running amok, mental illness, are parents failing to keep their firearms locked up. In this particular case, dad kept the lock box away from the reach of the kids, but this one particular kid had the combination, was able to open it up, and of course committed the deed. So it's just a horrific tragedy. The only question that really remains is where is this child going? Will he remain

Starting point is 00:05:45 in the juvenile jurisdiction or will he go upstairs to adult court where he could face 25 to life in prison and potentially never get out? The stories I cover each day here on Crime Fix show you just how scary the world can be. And one of the scariest things that can happen is if you ever get hurt. But I want you to know if you're ever seriously hurt or in an accident, your case could be worth millions. And that's where our sponsor, Morgan & Morgan, comes in. The firm has an army of more than a thousand lawyers who will fight for what you deserve, and they have the track record to prove it. In the past few months, Morgan & Morgan has won some big verdicts, like $12 million in Florida, $26 million in Philly, and $6.8 million

Starting point is 00:06:26 in New York. All of those were much higher than the highest insurance company offer. Seeing if you have a case can be done in eight clicks or less, and you don't even have to leave your couch to start one. Also a great thing, you only pay Morgan & Morgan if you win. There are no upfront fees. So if you're ever hurt, you can easily start a claim at ForThePeople.com slash CrimeFix. And the process in Washington state, I've been told, for them to determine whether the case will go to adult court could take up to a year, which seems like a really long time to me. but I guess they have all of these hearings they have to go through. It's a process. So nothing is going to be released about this case, no 911 calls,

Starting point is 00:07:11 nothing until it's determined whether he will be tried as an adult. As long as it stays in juvenile court, all of that stuff stays secret. The judge has even ordered that this teen's name not be released even though we know his name so there's a lot going on with this case still um what's laid out in these documents though Phillip is so uh cold and calculated they say that he basically this teenager 15 year old boy tried to frame his younger brother for the crime and tried to basically say my younger brother did this put they're saying he put the gun in his younger brother's hand younger brother was shot multiple times he's trying to say my brother killed everybody and took his own life that takes

Starting point is 00:08:00 a lot of calculation and thought what is going on on with this 15-year-old kid? You've been defending people for years and years. I mean, what is going on here? Well, it's precisely what has to be developed while they're still under the juvenile jurisdiction. Within 14 days of the filing of the charging document, the prosecution must do what's called a declination hearing or a decline hearing. Sometimes in other states, we call it a transfer hearing. During that time, the court decides who will retain jurisdiction over the kid. Will they decline juvenile jurisdiction over the minor

Starting point is 00:08:38 or send him upstairs to adult court? And the court has to engage in a balancing test. The court has to find by a preponderance of the evidence that it would be either in the juvenile's best interest or the public's best interest to transfer him upstairs. So what does that mean? Well, in the state of Washington, they have a host of factors, and I think they're called the Kent factors, which comes from, I believe, a state Supreme Court case, where they look to the sophistication of the crime. They look at the seriousness of the crime. They look at the minor's home environment. They look to see if he has any mental health deficiencies. Was he in special

Starting point is 00:09:19 education? What was going on in this kid's life? Does he even have familiarity with the justice system? a full psychosocial workup on this kid. And they're going to find out that he had a host of special needs that likely went unaddressed during homeschooling. And we have at the public school level and even the private school level in the United States, we have what's called the no child left behind legislation where schools and districts are required to test kids and provide them with all the services that they need if they are special needs so that they are not left behind so they do not fail and they could advance like other kids throughout the process. And it sounds like mom was not equipped to take that on. Of course, we won't know until special

Starting point is 00:10:22 testing is done on this kid and until he's seen by a psychiatrist or a forensic psychologist, but you can bet there is going to be some type of diagnosis. And my hunch is it's going to be on the autism spectrum, something to do with ADHD or attention hyperactive disorder, where something took hold of his judgment processes and an ability to control himself and that this was clearly an impulsive act. Perhaps had he had been properly medicated, properly diagnosed, this could have been avoided. The only legal advantage that this kid has is that because he was only 15 at the time, he cannot ever,

Starting point is 00:11:06 ever face life without parole in the adult system. The worst case scenario is 25 to life, which is still bad because in theory he might not ever get out, but at least he has a shot at a parole hearing if he is in fact tried as an adult. Yeah. I want to talk about the 11-year-old who played dead. I mean, that is just so harrowing to me. She had the wherewithal. She was wounded, but she was able to hold her breath and play dead and then escape and go to the neighbor's house while her brother was calling 911. There's another 911 call where she's relaying information to the neighbor. I can't imagine what this girl, I mean, is going to have to go through the rest of her life. I mean, she's the only living witness. It's horrific. And if you really think

Starting point is 00:11:57 about it, is it even a credibility call as to who did this shooting? I mean, in theory, the boy can insist that his brother did this. And then mean, in theory, the boy can insist that his brother did this, and then he would be pointing the finger at his sister that she's protecting the other brother who died. So the question is going to be, what kind of evidence did they collect? So for example, did they have gunshot residue on the boy's hands? Did she have any gunshot residue? Is there any touch DNA on the firearm that was used? But in answer to your question, at any age, I don't care if you're 10, 11, or 20, we all have a primal instinct for self-preservation. And when you sense that your life is on the line, even at that age,

Starting point is 00:12:39 you play possum if need be. You climb out a window, you scream for help, you do what you can. And this child had the presence of mind to preserve her own life, climb out a window, you scream for help, you do what you can. And this child had the presence of mind to preserve her own life, get out that window and run to neighbors. I think that standing alone is telling that she did not have a hand in this, you know. But it's going to take years for her to get over this because in essence, this child is orphaned. You know, her parents are gone, her siblings are gone. And let's face it, the brother's probably never going to get out. And if he does, he's going to be an age old man by then, you know. So it's going to take a while.

Starting point is 00:13:12 It's going to be daunting and trying for her to have to take the stand. They're going to have to get her a support person to stand next to her in open court to help allay her concerns and the nerve-wracking experience. But she'll get through it. I don't know that she'll get over it, but she will get through it. It is absolutely horrific. Awful, awful. And I just can't even imagine. Philip Dubé, thank you so much. Appreciate your time. And that's it for this episode of Crime Fix. I'm Ann Jeanette Levy. Thanks so much for being with me. I'll see you back here next time.

Pet Camera - EBO Air 2

Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - 11-Year-Old Girl Plays Dead As Brother Murders Family: Prosecutor

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.

Your Ad Here

Pet Camera - EBO Air 2

Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - 11-Year-Old Girl Plays Dead As Brother Murders Family: Prosecutor

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.