/ Green River Killer

Ridgway faces victims' families

11:18 AM PST on Thursday, December 18, 2003

From KING5.com Staff and Wire Reports

SEATTLE — One after another, with an eloquence honed by decades of grief and waiting, relatives of the women that Green River Killer Gary Ridgway murdered told him Thursday of the loss, hurt and emptiness he caused.

“Gary Ridgway is an evil creature who I would condemn to many, many long years of anguish and despair,” Nancy Gabbert, mother of victim Sandra Gabbert, told the court and Ridgway at his sentencing.

“No matter what you say, I will never, ever, ever forgive you,” said Sarah King, the daughter of victim Carol Christensen, whose body was found May 8, 1983.

KING/NWCN Confessed Green River serial killer Gary Ridgway listens to a judge during his formal sentencing in a courtroom in Seattle Thursday, December 18, 2003.

“I’m glad you didn’t get death,” she said, crying as she stared at Ridgway. “Death is too good for you. Someday you will die and you’ll go to that place and you’ll get what you deserve.”

Sherry Garrett was the first member of a Green River Killer victim family to speak at Gary Ridgway’s sentencing in Seattle. Garret is the sister of Cynthia Jean Hinds whose body was found in the Green River.

"You may no longer name yourself my judge or destiny. All you stole I reclaim with force...I am here to take back everything you kept, pieces of my soul," said Garrett. "I am taking back my yesterdays. I am unable to forgive you at this time."

While very few offered forgiveness to Ridgway, the majority that spoke in court Thursday expressed deep grief, anger and condemnation. CLICK HERE to read more comments by family members.

“It was not your right to decide who lived and who died,” said Tim Meehan, the brother of Mary Meehan, whose body was found Nov. 13, 1983. “Mary was no less a human being than your mother or your son, or as trash as you have classified all the victims.”

Slideshow of Ridgway sentencing

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“I’m done with you, Gary, finished,” he said. “It’s my turn to put you, the garbage, out, and throw away the key. It’s garbage like you, not these victims that you took their lives, that doesn’t deserve to live on.”

“I can only hope that someday, someone, gets the opportunity to choke you unconscious 48 times. So you can live through the horror that you put our mothers and our daughters through ... To me you are already dead.”

Ridgway, who confessed last month to strangling 48 women over the past two decades, watched each family member as they spoke at his sentencing. While their voices shook and sometimes broke with sadness and rage, Ridgway maintained a stony, blank stare, though he sometimes nodded at their comments.

Ridgway, however, started crying and dabbed away a tear that slipped out beneath his dark-rimmed glasses as he listened to the father of one of the women he killed.

While he listened impassively to those who condemned him to hell, he cried when Robert Rule said, "I forgive you." His daughter, Linda Rule, was 16 when she was killed in 1982.

Multimedia

Sherry Garrett, sister of victim Cynthia Hinds, speaks first Family of victim Opal Mills speaks Ridgway cries as Robert Rule speaks

Related Stories

Family members of victims speak Ridgway expects sympathy List of victims in Green River case Full Green River killings coverage

Courtroom documents   Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader

Prosecutor's summary of evidence The plea agreement Ridgway's statement Second amended information

Kathy Mills, the mother of victim Opal Mills, 16, whose body was found Aug. 15, 1982, was also among the few to offer Ridgway forgiveness.

“We wanted to see you die, but it’s all going to be over now,” said Kathy Mills, “Gary Leon Ridgway, I forgive you. I forgive you. You can’t hold me anymore. I’m through with you. I have a peace that is beyond human understanding.”

Ridgway, 54, has been convicted of more murders than any serial killer in U.S. history. As Thursday’s hearing started, assistant prosecutor Brian McDonald read Ridgway’s guilty pleas and the mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of release or parole. Prosecutors agreed not to seek the death penalty as part of a plea deal with Ridgway.

Tony Savage, one of Ridgway’s lawyers, has said he expects his client to apologize during the hearing.

"I'm expecting he will give a statement," Savage said. "I assume it will be one of remorse and regret that will fall on deaf ears, but he will say it."

Reichert: Ridgway is ‘pure evil’

As he entered the courthouse for Ridgway’s sentencing, King County Sheriff Dave Reichert, one of the first detectives to investigate the killings in the early 1980s, said he wouldn’t put much credence in any remorse Ridgway might show.

“I think that there is a piece of him that has always wanted to be cared for or loved or seen as a normal person,” Reichert said. “But he’s not been able to do that and so I think that’s his attempt at having somebody at least recognize he’s a human being and that he’d like to be treated as someone who’s a part of the community.

Reichert said that's all an act, an attempt to be seen as a normal person.

"He's a rapist, he's a murderer, he's a coward, and he's pure evil," said Reichert. "He's a monster, he's a killing machine. Period. The scary part is that he's not an alien. He didn't come from Mars. He came from right here in this community."

Relatives of 21 of Ridgway’s victims were to address King County Superior Court Judge Richard Jones. The court set aside a second day for Ridgway’s sentencing in case relatives needed more time.

Ridgway confesses to 48 murders

Ridgway pleaded guilty Nov. 5 to 48 counts of aggravated first-degree murder. In his confession, Ridgway said he killed because he hated prostitutes and didn’t want to pay them for sex; that he dumped their bodies in the Green River and other inconspicuous parts of King County; and that he killed so many women he had a hard time keeping them straight.

Ridgway was arrested Nov. 30, 2001, after detectives linked his DNA to sperm found in three of the earliest victims. By spring 2002, prosecutors had charged him with seven murders, but they had all but given up hope of linking him to the dozens of other women, most of whom disappeared during a terrifying stretch from 1982-84.

Last spring, defense attorneys offered King County Prosecutor Norm Maleng a deal: If Maleng would not seek the death penalty, Ridgway would help solve those other cases. Though Maleng had previously said he would not bargain with the death penalty, he changed his mind, saying that a strong principle of justice is to know the truth.

Ridgway cooperated, eventually confessing to 48 murders — the most recent in 1998 — and leading investigators to four previously undiscovered sets of remains.

Watch continuous live coverage all day Thursday on Northwest Cable News with a complete wrap-up on KING 5 News at 5 p.m.

KING5.com's Liza Javier, KING5.com's Ellen Liang, and the Associated Press contributed to this report.