Closing Arguments Paint Opposite Pictures Of Grisly Family Murder

Closing Arguments Paint Opposite Pictures Of Grisly Family Murder

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By Bryan Johnson

SEATTLE - The attorney for a Bellevue man accused of murdering his family ten years ago says police and prosecutors are ignoring evidence pointing to other suspects.

In final arguments to a King County jury Wednesday, Marc Stenchever argued the brutal beating of Tariq Rafay with a baseball bat was the work of someone other than the two accused, Atif Rafay and his best friend Sebastian Burns.

"You've seen those pictures of Dr. Rafay," he said. "Does he look like he is someone who was killed by a teenager looking for an inheritance, or someone who is the victim of a hate crime or something similar?"

The defense attorney argues Atif Rafay doesn't have the kind of hate it took in July 1994 to kill his mother, his father and his sister.

Prosecutors insist the motive wasn't hate, it was greed. All the family's insurance and possessions would go to Atif if all three were dead.

Prosecutor James Konat told the jury, "Mr. Burns and Mr Rafay acted in tandem to extinguish, to systematically destroy, wipe out, if you will, the Rafay family in July 1994."

Rafay's attorney called no witnesses. He insists the state proved Rafay innocent.

He recalled testimony of neighbors on both sides of the Rafay home. "They want you to ignore the testimony of the Rafay neighbors who heard the murder and told you it happened at a time that neither Mr. Burns nor Mr. Rafay was in that house."

But prosecutor Konat says the neighbors are wrong.

Konat says the proof of that is the blood of Tariq Rafay in the downstairs shower, and something else. "His blood was everywhere and in the same shower that had the victims blood in it, we found 21 hairs from Sebastian Burns."

The jury is likely to get the case Thursday or Friday after Burns attorney makes his closing statement and the prosecutor rebuttal arguments.

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