/ Green River Killer

07:36 AM PST on Thursday, November 6, 2003

By JEFF HUMPHREY / KREM 2 News and ROB KAUDER / KREM.com

SPOKANE - Green River Killer Gary Ridgway's plea agreement was patterned after the deal offered to Spokane serial killer Robert Yates and brought back memories for the man who brokered the deal to put Yates away for the rest of his natural life.

From the DNA evidence Gary Ridgway left behind at crime scenes to the deal that spared his life, the Green River killer has now followed the same judicial path, first blazed by Robert Yates just three years ago.

KREM Serial Killer Robert Yates listens in a Pierce County courtroom as he is sentenced to death for the murders of Connie LaFontaine Ellis and Melinda Mercer in October of 2002.

“I received e-mails and letters of support mostly which kinda of surprised me, but this does bring back memories of three years ago,” Tucker said Wednesday.

As part of Ridgway's deal, the former truck painter led investigators to four sets of human remains. In Spokane, Yates was able to avoid the death penalty by showing detectives where he had buried the remains of Melody Murfin outside his own home.

Relatives of Yates’ victims say they still support the plea agreement.

“I got some feedback from the Murfin family about finding their daughter's body, that was very important to them and that alone justified what I did I felt,” Tucker said,

Ironically, King County Prosecutor Norm Maleng was publicly critical of Tucker's decision to spare Robert Yates’ life three years ago. Now he's found himself in the same difficult position.

“I just think when he made the statement he hadn't actually been faced with the same situation we faced here and then suddenly he had to deal with three times the number of what we had,” Tucker said.

Yates escaped the death penalty in his deal with Spokane County, and was sentenced to 408 years in prison after he pled guilty to killing 12 people in Spokane, Walla Walla and Skagit Counties. However, he was later tried, convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of two Tacoma-area women in Pierce County. He is currently on Washington State’s Death Row in Walla Walla.

And much like Yates, Ridgway could still face the death penalty for murders in other jurisdictions outside King County.