SeaTac-area man William Earl Talbott II, 55, appeared in court on May 18, 2018. (Photo Credit: King 5)
Prosecutors in Washington state said they will not seek the death penalty against the man accused of killing a young Saanich couple more than 30 years ago.
The decision by Snohomish County prosecutors comes one month after the state’s Supreme Court ruled that the state’s death penalty law is unconstitutional. The state’s Supreme Court said death sentenced had been “imposed in an arbitrary and racially-based manner.” The ruling commuted the sentences of the eight men currently on the state’s death row to life in prison.
Before the Washington Supreme Court ruling, prosecutors had not yet considered whether to seek the death penalty in the case against truck driver William Earl Talbott II. He faces two charges of aggravated first-degree murder in connection with the deaths of 18-year-old Tanya Van Cuylenborg and her boyfriend Jay Cook, 20.
Snohomish County’s chief criminal deputy prosecutor Craig Matheson said this was because the defence was still gathering materials to be presented to the Snohomish County prosecutors.
“We had not gone through whether we would seek it or not,” Matheson said.
Jay Cook, 20, and his girlfriend Tanya Van Cuylenborg, 18, of Saanich were killed while visiting Washington state in 1987. Photo courtesy of the Times Colonist.
Under Washinton state’s capital punishment statute that was deemed unconstitutional, defendants convicted of aggravated first-degree murder to life in prison without the possibility of parole or sentenced to death. A person is charged with aggravated first-degree murder if they allegedly: killed someone intentionally with planning; intentionally killed a person while serving a term in prison or while a prison escapee; intentionally killed a person younger than 13 years of age; intentionally killed a law enforcement officer on official duty or with planning; killed someone or illegally terminated a person’s pregnancy while in the process of committing trespassing, terrorism, rape, kidnapping, arson, burglary and robbery.,
“That leaves only one possible sentence if an individual is convicted of aggravated murder, which is life in prison,” Matheson said about the recent Washington Supreme Court decision.
High school sweethearts Van Cuylenborg and Cook had travelled from Victoria to Port Angeles on Nov. 18, 1987, via the Coho ferry. The two were driving the Cook family van to Seattle pick up furnace parts for Cook’s father.
The Cook family van that was driven to the United States. The van was located in Whatcom County (Washington State), locked up and abandoned, in a Blue Diamond parking lot near State and Holly Streets in Bellingham, Wash. on Nov. 25, 1987. (Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office)
The two were last seen at the Bremerton-Seattle area that same day but did not arrive in Seattle. They were reported missing on Nov. 20, 1987.
Van Cuylenborg’s body was discovered in a ditch 20 kilometres south of Bellingham, Wash. on Nov. 24, 1987. She had been sexually assaulted and shot.
Then on Nov. 26, 1987, Cook’s body was found under a bridge near Monroe, Wash. about an hour’s drive away. He had been beaten and strangled to death.
The case eventually went cold until new DNA technology led police to arrest Talbott. Police said DNA collected at the scene of Van Cuylenborg’s murder was used to identify Talbott’s ancestors, which then led to Talbott.
The DNA had been uploaded by investigators onto a public, online genealogy database. Genetic genealogist CeCe Moore, who worked on the case alongside Virginia-based genetics company Parabon NanoLabs, built a family tree for the suspect based on the genetic evidence and data uploaded by distant cousins.
Once genealogists made the connection, police got a DNA sample from a cup Talbott was used. The sample was a match and Talbott was arrested in May. He has pleaded not guilty.
A trial is expected to start in early April with pretrial motions set for March 29.
With files from the Times Colonist and The Canadian Press
Alexa Huffman
