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Wednesday, August 19, 2009

The Kalebu Tapes: "You Guys Are Just Wasting My Time At This Point."

Posted by on Wed, Aug 19, 2009 at 7:00 AM

If you watch this clip from the beginning, you'll hear a lot of chit-chat that needs some decoding (provided below) in order to become interesting. But if you jump ahead to about 3:20, you'll hear something that needs no decoding: Isaiah M. Kalebu starting to get upset.


Kalebu, angered by an apparent delay in the start date for his upcoming trial on charges of threatening to kill his mother, can be seen in this video expressing serious unhappiness with his defense attorney and then explaining to the court his theory of the case.

"It's not gonna go to trial," he says. "It's gonna be dismissed. My mother already indicated the fact that she wishes not to testify so you guys are just wasting my time at this point. All we need to do is set the date, we have the date, she decides not to testify, and that's the end of it. So we're just going through the motions right now and I don't really see the point in all this."

Prosecutor Zac Hostetter disagrees. "We're not dismissing this case," he says.

Then Judge Brian Gain sticks with the delayed trial date.

But there's something else going on in this video. It's not just about a delayed trial date and a flash of frustration from Kalebu. It's also about Kalebu's mental state.

Remember that on July 13, ten days before this hearing, Judge Gain set Kalebu free despite concerns from Hostetter about Kalebu's mental stability and his recent run-ins with the law.

When he did this, Judge Gain also ordered that Kalebu reappear in court in about two weeks and present an update from his mental health treatment provider.

According to police and prosecutors, well before those two weeks were up Kalebu murdered Teresa Butz after raping her and her partner in the early morning hours of July 19. But that was unknown at the time of this hearing. All Judge Gain knew was that he'd released Kalebu on certain conditions on July 13. Then, a week later, Kalebu had shown up in Judge Gain's courtroom with his pit bull to talk trial dates. Now, two days after that, here was Kalebu again to discuss trial dates—and his defense attorney was using the occasion to ask for more time to provide the mental health update.

Something caused Judge Gain to hold very firm on the mental health question. He interrupted the defense attorney's request for more time, saying: "I need to see [the mental health update]... I need to be assured that he is in mental health treatment and is taking medication or I can't take the risk of having him out of custody."

In hindsight, of course, it's clear that Judge Gain had already taken the risk. If the charges against Kalebu prove true, it will have been a risk that led to the murder of Teresa Butz.

When the hearing shown in this video was over, Kalebu was left with five more days to present his mental health update to the court. However, by the end of the next day, after a series of quick developments, Kalebu was in custody, charged with raping Butz and her partner at knife-point and then stabbing them both—Butz fatally.

One other thing that's going on in the video. When Kalebu was arrested on rape and murder charges he was wearing a green coat, and on that green coat, according to police, was blood. If it was the same green coat that he's wearing in this video, and if there was indeed blood on it, and if it turns out that the blood was from the murder of Teresa Butz, then this video is showing us something chilling: a man, standing in the court of the judge who freed him, wearing the blood of a woman who he used that freedom to kill.

Tomorrow: An older—and bigger—courtroom outburst from Kalebu.

Video wizardry: Kelly O

 

Comments (15) RSS

Oldest First Unregistered On Registered On Add a comment
1
how many murders in Seattle this year?
and THIS one gets 24/7 attention from Slog because...
a black killed a homnosexual?
Posted by ...some lives are worth more than others... on August 19, 2009 at 7:37 AM
2
No, this one gets attention because of the specifically horrific nature of the crime and the very visible perp, whose particular situation highlights some of the problems with our current criminal justice system.

Straw Man is Strawy. Please try again later.
Posted by M. Blanca on August 19, 2009 at 8:35 AM
3
"some of the problems with our current criminal justice system"

Like liberal judges turning murderers loose to kill again?
Sometimes Karma whips around and bites a huge gaping hunk out of your ass.
It's rich.
Posted by America on August 19, 2009 at 8:47 AM
seandr 4
It's called "due process", and generally speaking, it's a good thing. The alternative is that judges arbitrarily lock people up due to intuition, whim, prejudice, political affiliation, or failure to come up with a sufficient bribe.

Violence at the hands of citizens is an inherent risk in a free society. But it's not a big risk, and it's one that citizens can easily mitigate (e.g., dog, alarm, self defense training, locking doors/windows).
Posted by seandr on August 19, 2009 at 8:51 AM
5
It's not fair to refer to Judge Gain as "the judge who freed him [Kalebu]," implying that Judge Gain could have kept Kalebu in custody simply for being accused of another crime (harassment). According to Article I, Section 20 of the Washington State Constitution, "All persons charged with crime shall be bailable by sufficient sureties, except for capital offenses when the proof is evident, or the presumption great," and Article I, Section 14 provides that "Excessive bail shall not be required." This means that in non-capital cases bail need only be sufficient to reasonably ensure the defendant will show up for trial. Kalebu was not being charged with a capital offense (although he is now), and he was showing up for his hearings, so there probably wasn't cause to put him in custody or increase bail at the time.

Whether Judge Gain should have put Kalebu in custody for mental health issues presents a slightly different question. Judges can lock people up because of mental health concerns, but I don't think you want them doing that too perfunctorily, because it would result in a lot of non-criminals being locked up. Maybe one or two of the crazy people who don't get involuntarily committed to Western State go out and commit a serious, violent crime, but our criminal justice system is generally speaking not based on locking people up because they might commit a crime.
Posted by Scott T. on August 19, 2009 at 9:03 AM
lark 6
Eli,
Wow, Kalebu sounds pretty mentally competent to me. His arrogance astounds. That video is eerie.
Posted by lark on August 19, 2009 at 9:41 AM
Vince 7
Some people have not a shred of humanity.
Posted by Vince on August 19, 2009 at 10:42 AM
8
Wow. That guy is creepy. He's going to prison for a long, long time.
Posted by SouthSeattle on August 19, 2009 at 11:04 AM
Eric Arrr 9
@4 ftw.

Posted by Eric Arrr on August 19, 2009 at 11:22 AM
Eric Arrr 10
Yeah, Eli, seriously, @5 has you dead to rights.
Posted by Eric Arrr on August 19, 2009 at 11:32 AM
11
@1,

Not many. As of June, there were only eight homicides committed within Seattle city limits. Do you actually live here or are you one of those conservatards so scared of the bogeyman (i.e. black people) you want to pretend that hundreds of murders are committed in this city every year?
Posted by keshmeshi on August 19, 2009 at 11:52 AM
12
It pisses me off that this fucker's family enabled him for so long. They might not be legally culpable for what he's done, but they're at least somewhat morally culpable.

If this guy knew that he's fucked up and violent off his meds, he should at least be held legally responsible for choosing not to take them.
Posted by keshmeshi on August 19, 2009 at 11:56 AM
13
11
no, thousands
Posted by Thousands of Murders! on August 19, 2009 at 12:17 PM
14
3: "Like liberal judges turning murderers loose to kill again?
Sometimes Karma whips around and bites a huge gaping hunk out of your ass.
It's rich."

well... the accused was established to the court as a perpetrator with a history of mental illness and republicans of the Carter and Reagan era administrations have a long and unfortunately successful history of opposing involuntary commitment of the severely mentally ill (until such a time that a violent offense has occurred and the offender tried and convicted) and of delegating care of the mentally ill to states only. Without (enough) federal regulations and federal funding, states' mental health crises are inevitable and the byproduct of too many people, not enough government.
Who knows, without the domestic violence victim defense program, perhaps he wouldn't have had as much time with the judge as he did, and they would have had less information with which to identify and arrest him after the absolutely horrific murder.
I really wish that conservatives would stop focusing on all "big" government as a bad thing and start focusing on policies that work within government and policies that don't.
I've seen "Deadwood". Small, ineffective governments are a travesty from which the only solace is whiskey.
Posted by Yorn on August 19, 2009 at 2:17 PM
Gary W 15
Thanks for your knowledgeable input "Scot T."
Posted by Gary W on August 20, 2009 at 6:02 PM

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