Verdict expected in island slayings of couple with Columbia ties [The State (Columbia, S.C.)]

May 06--COLUMBIA, S.C. -- A seven-month saga of Columbians seeking justice for slain loved ones will end Wednesday when a judge on the Caribbean island of St. Maarten will sentence three defendants in the slayings of Mike and Thelma King.

"There's no way we wouldn't be there," said Mike's brother, Todd King, 50, of Chapin, who attended last month's trial. "We were best friends."

For a decade, semi-retired Mike and his wife of 22 years, Thelma, had been living the dream life of a wildly successful entrepreneur couple who by dint of hard work became multi-millionaires. They grew up in the Columbia area and had a host of friends and family here who were shocked when they died.

"Five hundred people came to their funeral in Chapin," said Todd King.

Mike was 53; Thelma, 57. Mike had done well in the insurance business, and the couple lived part of the year in the Charleston area and visited family in Columbia. They also stayed for up to half the year at their million-dollar-plus villa hideaway on the Dutch side of St. Maarten, a popular cruise ship destination known for its shopping and beaches, about 230 miles from Puerto Rico.

The couple's dream included a future -- they were on the verge of starting a new rum factory on the island.

Last fall, all that came to a sudden, brutal end.

On the night of Sept. 19, three men armed with a gun broke into their beachfront home, forced Thelma to open a bedroom safe, tied her to a chair, then stabbed Mike and her repeatedly.

As the couple lay dying, the men escaped with some $70,000 in cash and jewelry and began to spend it on prostitutes and liquor, prosecutors say.

For the Columbia-area King family, the discovery of the killings two days later began a heart-breaking, costly ordeal of regular flights to St. Maarten to attend hearings and work with police and prosecutors, as well as frequent contacts with the local FBI and U.S. attorney's office in Columbia.

Local federal officials -- primarily FBI agent Craig Januchowski, assistant U.S. Attorney Stacey Haynes and FBI victim advocate Pamela Gregory -- got involved at the request of St. Maarten prosecutors, who needed to supplement their island investigation with information about the victims.

Januchowski interviewed family members. Haynes obtained cell phone records. It's basic backgrounding legwork but expensive and difficult for foreign investigators to do in the United States. They forwarded what they found to St. Maarten.

For the King family in Columbia, the federal role had another key element: It gave the family what survivors need -- the feeling that someone cared and was there for them.

"They had loved ones brutally murdered in another country," Haynes said. "They were dealing not only with the grief family members go through at a time like that, but that it happened in another country they weren't familiar with and a judicial system they weren't familiar with. They didn't know who to trust."

What prosecutors say happened

The robbery and murder of the Kings took all of 21 minutes shortly before 11 p.m. on the night of Sept. 19. The timeline was established by surveillance cameras that captured shadowy figures leaving and entering the villa.

Within a few weeks, using basic shoe-leather techniques, police rounded up three suspects who would each give written, sworn confessions that still entitled them to tell their side of the story at trial. On Wednesday, under the island's system of justice, the judge is expected to go ahead and sentence them, from 24 years to life in prison.

Since the killings, the Kings have learned about the Dutch system of justice. There was, for example, no jury -- just a judge, who, like the lawyers, asked questions of the defendants.

"The judge knew that case inside and out," Todd King said.

Some of her questions were designed to get things on the public record, and she delved into inconsistencies, he said.

For example, one suspect offered the Kings a drink before he killed them. He told the judge at trial he was "just trying to relax them."

The judge replied, "Don't you think it would have been more relaxing if you had just left?" King said. "She knew they were lying."

Todd King has nothing but praise for St. Maarten's justice system.

Police furnished a victim-assistance officer, and prosecutors answered their questions. St. Maarten's prime minister, Sarah Williams, personally expressed condolences and attended a memorial service.

Honoring their memory

Some early media accounts speculated that the killings had to do with drugs or gambling. But overwhelming evidence developed by prosecutors showed the crime was sadly like many in the news -- another armed robbery with a tragic ending.

"It was a random, senseless act of violence," Haynes said.

The FBI's Januchowski, who has worked with many families of violent crime victims, said the King family was terribly grief-stricken but acted courageously after the tragedy.

"Todd is one he most admirable individuals I've ever met," Januchowski said. "He was just very resolute and determined to do whatever the family could do to assist St. Maarten to bring those individuals to justice."

In addition to traveling to the island, working with police and bearing witness for Mike and Thelma, the Kings are honoring Mike's and Thelma's memory in two ways.

First, they are continuing with the rum factory the couple envisioned, employing 15 people in St. Maarten. Its first bottles, called Topper's Rhum, already are being sold in South Carolina.

Second, the family has established a foundation to help American and St. Maarten citizens whose relatives are crime victims in other countries.

Not every family has the resources to travel like the surviving King family, Todd King said, "and we wanted to do something to help them."

The foundation will help both American and St. Maarten citizens, he said, because in a way, St. Maarten's and its people were victims of the crime, too.

"People have to understand it was just three guys who did this. It's important to know there's nothing against the island. The island cares for the Kings, and there's a mutual liking and understanding. Mike and Thelma would want it like this."

Reach Monk at (803) 771-8344.

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