Thai Man Arrested In Murder Of Tacoma 12 Yr Old Girl

[Scott]

This is a sad case all the way around. There are deviant people in every country and society. The fact that this man is Thai and MAY have commited this crime is of little importance. What is important is that if so, he be dealt with fairly by the judicial system. My guess is he will be dealt with a little more on the 'harsh' side of fair.

My condolences to the family of the victim.

[LaoPo]

Thai man may face US death penalty

Excerpts:

Tacoma, Washington (Agencies) - The Thai man suspected of kidnapping and killing 12-year-old Zina Linnik will be charged Monday with the state’s highest crime, prosecutors in Washington state said.

His mother, who is married to an American and took the family to the US many years ago, said, "My son is sick. I am angry at him, but I am so sorry."

Teraporn "Dang" Adhahn, 42, is to appear in Superior Court on Tuesday morning Thailand time - 1:30 pm in Tacoma - to answer to one charge of aggravated first-degree murder in the Tacoma girl’s death.

He gave investigators information that led them to Zina’s body July 12 near Silver Lake in eastern Pierce County.

A conviction of aggravated first-degree murder carries a possible death sentence. Deputy prosecutor Ed Murphy declined Friday to discuss whether a decision has been made about whether to pursue the death penalty against Adhahn.

On Thursday, prosecutors charged Adhahn with 12 crimes unrelated to Zina’s death, including the rapes of two school-age girls. He pleaded not guilty to those charges and was being held in jail with bail set at $2 million.

Complete article here:

http://www.bangkokpost.com/breaking_news/b...s.php?id=120373

LaoPo

[sbk]

Well, he plead not guilty to the charge but will avoid the death penalty:

Thai to escape US death sentence

Tacoma, Washington (Agencies) - Terapon "Dang" Adhahn, a Thai immigrant and suspected serial sex murderer, pleaded innocent on Monday to charges of raping and killing a 12-year-old girl, but will not face the death penalty at his coming trial.

Bangkok Post today

And the Nation:

Thai man to escape death penalty in the US

Tocoma, Washington - The Thai man charged with kidnapping, raping and killing a 12-year-old girl earlier this month will not face the death penalty, thanks to a deal made with prosecutors during the final frantic hours of the search for the missing girl.

Eight days after Zina Linnik, the Tacoma girl's July 4 abduction, Terapon Adhahn, a handyman who once served in the elite Army Rangers, agreed to take searchers to a forest near Silver Lake where Zina's lifeless body lay.

Seattle Post Intelligencer.com reported Tuesday that in exchange for his cooperation, Pierce County Prosecutor Gerald Horne, a long-time capital punishment proponent, agreed to take the death penalty off the table.

Adhahn, a convicted sex offender already charged with raping two other local girls, was charged Monday with aggravated murder, first-degree rape and first-degree kidnapping. If convicted, the 42-year-old Thai immigrant will spend the rest of his life in prison -- the only other option under state law.

Calling the deal "a decision made in urgent circumstances," Horne said Monday that investigators were holding on to the hope that Adhahn would lead them to Zina while she was still alive.

Adhahn was identified as a suspect in Zina's disappearance four days after the girl was taken from an alley behind her family's Hilltop neighborhood home.

But, Horne said, Adhahn refused to cooperate with investigators without a promise that the death penalty wouldn't be pursued. On July 12, he led detectives to a wooded lot near Silver Lake in eastern Pierce County. There, they found the girl's body dumped in the underbrush.

Seattle PI said quoted Horne as saying a medical examiner determined Zina died of blunt force trauma to the head before being moved to Silver Lake.

Tests showed Adhahn's DNA on Linnik's body, which was apparently present because of sexual contact, according to court documents.

The defendant pleaded not guilty last week to 11 felony counts related to sexual assaults on two other girls, and to failing to register as a sex offender. He pleaded guilty in 1990 to incest for sexually assaulting a grown family member.

The day after Zina disappeared, Adhahn told co-workers that he needed to return to Thailand, according to charging papers.

Adhahn had also cleaned the inside of his gray van, the one police believe Zina's father, Mikhail Linnik, spotted moments after hearing his daughter scream the night she disappeared.

[Jimjim]

Looks like he'll be in jail for a very long time.

Edit: He'll probably have better conditions than he would in a Bangkok jail.

Edited July 24, 2007 by Jimjim

[Tinkelbell]

Looks like he'll be in jail for a very long time.

Edit: He'll probably have better conditions than he would in a Bangkok jail.

That's for sure. Also if he want to have his sex changed, he could file a petiton to have one free at the expense of the taxpayers too.

[sriracha john]

Well, he plead not guilty to the charge but will avoid the death penalty:

Thai to escape US death sentence

Tacoma, Washington (Agencies) - Terapon "Dang" Adhahn, a Thai immigrant and suspected serial sex murderer, pleaded innocent on Monday to charges of raping and killing a 12-year-old girl, but will not face the death penalty at his coming trial.

UPDATE...he's changed his plea to guilty

Terapon Adhahn

Adhahn to plead guilty in slaying of young girl

TACOMA, Wash. -- Terapon Adhahn, the man charged with kidnapping and killing a young Tacoma girl, will plead guilty to murder, officials said on Friday.

Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Mary Robnett said Adhahn is expected to change his plea in a hearing April 7 in Pierce County Superior Court.

Prosecutors have been working with Adhahn's attorneys for some time on striking a plea deal, Robnett said.

Adhahn, a convicted sex offender, previously pleaded not guilty to kidnapping, rape and murder charges in the July killing of 12-year-old Zina Linnik.

Prosecutors have already removed the death penalty as an option as part of a deal to get Adhahn to lead them to Linnik's body after his arrest.

"I have no regrets about taking the death penalty off the table in these circumstances," Pierce County Prosecutor Gerald Horne said at the time. "We may never have found the body."

Adhahn is being held in the Pierce County Jail for Linnik's death as well as in the rapes of two other girls - one of whom survived after apparently being left for dead in a remote section of Fort Lewis.

Zina had been missing since twilight on July 4, when she was snatched from an alley behind her family's home in Tacoma during a neighborhood fireworks display. Investigators said her father saw a gray van leaving the scene, and that his partial recollection of the license plate helped them track down Adhahn at a home south of Tacoma.

He was arrested July 8. Four days later, he rode in a police cruiser and directed investigators to the area near Silver Lake where he had dumped the body, according to charging documents.

Detectives said that as they were investigating Adhahn, they discovered his links to two other victims: an 11-year-old girl who was kidnapped on her way to school, brutally raped and left in a remote part of Fort Lewis in 2000; and another who lived with Adhahn as a teen and said he raped her as many as 200 times. Adhahn is charged with rape and child rape in those cases, as well as failing to register as a sex offender. He pleaded not guilty to those counts last week.

He is also a person of interest in the late 2005 abduction and killing of Adre'Anna Jackson, a 10-year-old girl whose remains were found in a Pierce County field last year.

Adhahn came to the U.S. in the 1970s after his mother married a U.S. soldier. He was convicted of incest in 1990 for violently raping a 16-year-old female relative and sentenced to two months in jail, plus five years of counseling. He told his counselors that he had been raped countless times by an older brother while growing up in Thailand, according to a mental evaluation filed in Pierce County Superior Court as part of that case.

His case helped prompt a review of state sex offender laws, and earlier this month Gov. Chris Gregoire signed legislation to increase surveillance of sex offenders.

- KOMO Television News (Seattle) Mar 28, 2008

[LaoPo]

Looks like he'll be in jail for a very long time.

Edit: He'll probably have better conditions than he would in a Bangkok jail.

Although your message is almost a year old it seems that he now will be in jail for the rest of his life. Being 42/43 now that is a VERY LONG TIME.

Better conditions than a Bangkok jail ?...hmmmm...I am not sure, because what I have read and heard in the past, US inmates are not so friendly to child rapists and murderers.

Apart from that there is NO way he will be freed on parole in the US; and THAT possibility is always there in Thailand !

LaoPo

[jstumbo]

Too bad they took the death penalty off the table. Raping and killing children an no question about his guilt, guys like these are the ones that should not be allowed to live.

US prison is not that bad. Cable TV, computers, library, exercise equipment, education, ok food, medical care, sex, barbershop, daily showers, drugs, store. Probably better living than a lot of people in Thailand. You are just limited to a smaller area. Most people I think get used to it, it just becomes a new society for them.

Granted, being Thai and a child rapist/killer, it will be tough on him.

Edited March 31, 2008 by jstumbo

[sriracha john]

UPDATE....he's been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole...

The murderer:

The murderer's victim:

Man pleads guilty in murder of 12-year-old Tacoma girl

TACOMA, Wash. - A former handyman and tow-truck driver pleaded guilty Monday to kidnapping a 12-year-old girl last July 4, raping her, killing her and leaving her body in a patch of thick brush.

The plea in Pierce County Superior Court to an aggravated first-degree murder charge means that Adhahn will spend the rest of his life in prison, without the chance of parole.

Larger screen E-mail this clip

In a hearing before Judge Rosanne Buckner, Terapon Adhahn admitted he kidnapped Zina Linnik from an alley behind her home at twilight and dumped her body in a wooded area near Silver Lake in eastern Pierce County. Linnik and her siblings had been watching a neighborhood fireworks display.

Investigators said her father saw a gray van leave the scene, and that his partial recollection of the license plate helped them track down Adhahn at a home south of Tacoma.

The plea in Pierce County Superior Court to an aggravated first-degree murder charge means that Adhahn will spend the rest of his life in prison, without the chance of parole. Prosecutors agreed not to seek the death penalty against the Thai immigrant, and he led them to her body.

"The pain is always going to be there, there is nothing to numb the pain, Zina will never come back, but at least to realize that he is behind bars, pleaded guilty, and he'll be sentence, will make it easier," said Anatoly Kalchik, Zina's uncle.

Linnik's family will have a chance to address Adhahn directly at his sentencing May 2.

Adhahn also pleaded guilty Monday to a dozen other charges in the rapes of two girls from the Tacoma area, ages 11 and 12. He remains a person of interest in the late 2005 abduction and killing of Adre'Anna Jackson, a 10-year-old girl whose remains were found in a Pierce County field.

- KING television news (Seattle)

[LaoPo]

UPDATE....he's been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole...

The murderer:

The murderer's victim:

Man pleads guilty in murder of 12-year-old Tacoma girl

TACOMA, Wash. - A former handyman and tow-truck driver pleaded guilty Monday to kidnapping a 12-year-old girl last July 4, raping her, killing her and leaving her body in a patch of thick brush.

The plea in Pierce County Superior Court to an aggravated first-degree murder charge means that Adhahn will spend the rest of his life in prison, without the chance of parole.

Larger screen E-mail this clip

In a hearing before Judge Rosanne Buckner, Terapon Adhahn admitted he kidnapped Zina Linnik from an alley behind her home at twilight and dumped her body in a wooded area near Silver Lake in eastern Pierce County. Linnik and her siblings had been watching a neighborhood fireworks display.

Investigators said her father saw a gray van leave the scene, and that his partial recollection of the license plate helped them track down Adhahn at a home south of Tacoma.

The plea in Pierce County Superior Court to an aggravated first-degree murder charge means that Adhahn will spend the rest of his life in prison, without the chance of parole. Prosecutors agreed not to seek the death penalty against the Thai immigrant, and he led them to her body.

"The pain is always going to be there, there is nothing to numb the pain, Zina will never come back, but at least to realize that he is behind bars, pleaded guilty, and he'll be sentence, will make it easier," said Anatoly Kalchik, Zina's uncle.

Linnik's family will have a chance to address Adhahn directly at his sentencing May 2.

Adhahn also pleaded guilty Monday to a dozen other charges in the rapes of two girls from the Tacoma area, ages 11 and 12. He remains a person of interest in the late 2005 abduction and killing of Adre'Anna Jackson, a 10-year-old girl whose remains were found in a Pierce County field.

- KING television news (Seattle)

...Justice is done, but the girl is dead and the family has to live with it for the rest of their lives.

May she RIP and I hope the other cases can be solved as well.

LaoPo

[kat]

Adhahn came to the U.S. in the 1970s after his mother married a U.S. soldier. He was convicted of incest in 1990 for violently raping a 16-year-old female relative and sentenced to two months in jail, plus five years of counseling. He told his counselors that he had been raped countless times by an older brother while growing up in Thailand, according to a mental evaluation filed in Pierce County Superior Court as part of that case.

This story makes me sad for so many reasons. It also makes me so angry that it took the brutal rape of multiple young girls and the attempted murder of one and the actual murder Zina to be caught. I also have a suspicion that his tenure in a US jail as a child rapist and killer may have prompted him to ask for the death penalty; definitely not like Thailand.

It also reminds me of another sad case of immigration and child murder currently unfolding in Salt Lake City, Utah ...

http://www.abc4.com/news/local/story.aspx?...41-c08a7c84961a

*added: It's also possible that his evaluation and counseling in the United States was possibly the first time he viewed what happened to him at the hands of his older brother as rape, since legally there is no such thing as male rape in Thailand.

Edited April 8, 2008 by kat