TACOMA, Wash. - Twenty-one-year-old Amanda Knight cried as she made her first court appearance Wednesday, pleading not guilty to murder, assault and robbery charges in a deadly Craigslist home invasion robbery.
Bail was set at $2 million.
Knight is charged along with 22-year-old Kiyoshi A. Higashi, 20-year-old Joshua N. Reese and 23-year-old Clabon T. Berniard in the killing of Jim Sanders, who had offered a ring for sale on Craigslist.
Members of the Sanders family were in court for Knight's arraignment.
"I'm thinking, 'she's crying,' what do you think you put my family through," said Jim Sanders' wife, Charlene. "I mean, really, you guys made that choice to come to my house."
"There's consequences to every sin. You took my husband, you think I don’t cry?"
"I was supposed to be in the Dominican Republic on a beautiful vacation with some of my family and instead my vacation time turned into bereavement time," she said.
According to amended charging documents on Knight, Reese told Pierce County detectives that "he was involved in the events at the Sanders residence."
Knight also "confirmed that she was involved in the events at the Sanders residence."
Investigators also say they have linked Knight to a similar home invasion in Lake Stevens.
Detectives said Knight recently sold a ring stolen from the Lake Stevens home to a pawn shop in Seattle.
Knight was arrested with Reese and Higashi during a traffic stop last Saturday outside of San Francisco. She bailed out of jail before she had been linked to the robberies in Washington state.
Reese and Higashi remain in a California jail.
According to detectives, someone in Washington sent Knight money so she could take a bus back home to Sumner.
Knight turned herself in to police Tuesday night after police said they were looking for her in connection to the Edgewood robbery.
Jim Sanders was shot and killed in his home, in front of his family, during the robbery last Wednesday. Sanders had been selling a diamond ring on Craigslist. Family members said Knight told him she wanted to buy the ring for Mother's Day.
Charlene Sanders said there's no doubt Knight was one of the people who broke into her home last week.
"I remember that face when I was on the floor zip-tied looking up at her," said Sanders.
If convicted on all charges, the maximum sentence for the suspects is 67 years.
Pierce County Prosecutor Mark Lindquist said regardless of who pulled the trigger, all four face murder charges.
"When you assist somebody in a murder you are an accomplice to murder and you are equally culpable as someone who pulled the trigger," said Lindquist.
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