Family members testify in support of Carnation killer; mother calls massacre a 'fluke'
SEATTLE -- The defense in convicted killer Joseph McEnroe's sentencing trial called his family members to the stand Tuesday in the hope of persuading the jury to save his life.
“I’m still proud of him, of the man he was, and this was just a fluke,” McEnroe's mother, Sean Johnson, told the jury.
Her son was convicted of one of the state’s most horrific murder cases -- the shooting death of his girlfriend's six family members, including two small children, in the family home in Carnation on Christmas Eve 2007.
“So disgusted with what happened,” McEnroe said.
McEnroe testified on the stand Monday and broke down as he described the murders. He blamed his girlfriend, Michele Anderson, for tricking him into killing her family.
“I did this because I thought she was in danger,” McEnroe said.
McEnroe says after Michele’s gun jammed, he fired the first shot at her father, Wayne Anderson.
“I shot him in the head,” McEnroe said.
Then he went after Wayne’s wife, Judy.
“Collapsing on the side of the fridge the last thing she said was, 'Oh, no,'” McEnroe said.
After hiding the couple’s bodies in a shed, McEnroe said, they waited for Michele’s brother Scott, sister in-law Erica and their children Nathan and Olivia to show up to the Carnation home.
“I said, don’t ask me to kill anybody else because I am not going to and she said, 'Oh, no problem,'” McEnroe said.
But he admitted to executing the rest of Michele’s family to get rid of witnesses.
“If you hate me, don’t feel bad; I hate me, too. I hate me so much I can’t even stand being with me,” McEnroe said to those in the courtroom.
The defense claims McEnroe suffers from mental illness and was easily bullied by a domineering girlfriend. But the prosecution says McEnroe chose to kill.
During cross-examination, prosecutor Scott O’Toole questioned McEnroe’s mom about his intelligence, saying he could read books appropriate for 12th graders when he was only 8.
McEnroe’s mother said she did the best she could raising four kids as a single mother but relatives say she was neglectful of McEnroe, who was never confrontational.
“She would smack him on the head, and if he cried, she would say, 'toughen up there.' Wasn’t compassionate,” aunt Mary Turner said.
McEnroe’s brothers also testified, saying their mother dated troubled men and that one of them tried to persuade Joseph to kill a prostitute.
“He tried to persuade us to go with him but we said oh no,” brother Chris McEnroe said.
The state contends McEnroe is a liar and a killer who deserves death. They will get the chance to cross-examine him late Wednesday afternoon or Thursday.
Michele Anderson’s trial is set for January 2016.