In the opening day of the penalty phase for convicted felon Conner Schierman, family members of the slain victims recalled vivid memories of their loved ones.
Now Schierman’s family and friends are doing the same for him.
Schierman’s high school football coach, stepfather and younger sister were among those who testified on their memories of him, before he was arrested for aggravated first-degree murder and arson in 2006.
Kinsey Schierman called her older brother, four years her senior, as “always (an) upbeat, happy-go-lucky person.”
Schierman was convicted by a jury two weeks ago of killing his Kirkland neighbor’s Olga Milkin, 28; her sons, Justin, 5 and Andrew, 3; and her sister, Lyubov Botvina, 24, on July, 17, 2006 and then burning down the Slater Avenue home to cover up the crime. The same jury is to decide whether the 28 year-old Bellevue native should receive life in prison without parole or death by lethal injection.
Defense Attorney James Conroy is trying to save Schierman from the most extreme punishment by bringing in the convicted murderer’s co-workers, friends, family and treatment counselors. Conroy said in his opening statement of the penalty phase on April 19 that his client faced a troubled past of mental illness, childhood abuse at the hands of his father and drug and alcohol use. Schierman’s sister’s voice broke when she talked about some domestic violence incidents.
Tim Zeizer, Schierman’s football coach at Newport High School in Bellevue, gave him emotional support when his parents Wendy and David were going through a divorce. But he saw no signs of drug or alcohol use from Schierman.
“Conner loved the game and he loved to play and he loved the program,” said Zeizer, who has visited Schierman twice since he was incarcerated.
Kinsey, however, said she did notice a change in her brother’s behavior around the time of the divorce. He began smoking cigarettes, drinking and “arguing more.”
“I was younger and I didn’t have the ability to ask him, you know, ‘what exactly are you so mad about?’ or ‘what’s so difficult for you right now?’ and I didn’t think to ask that either because I felt I was just happy that Dave (her father) was gone,” Kinsey said.
She described one incident where Schierman locked himself in his room of his home where he shared a roommate.
“He eventually did come out of his room,” Kinsey said. “I knew that he had been carefully hiding this progression from me and I understood.”
Later, she discussed how her brother handled alcoholism.
“I know then and I know now my brother has great potential,” Kinsey Schierman said. “The first time I saw him (after drug rehab) … I felt like I saw the little boy Conner in him again.”
She said Schierman never wanted to be a bad influence on her. He sought treatment for alcohol and drug abuse at a rehabilitation center and then moved into a halfway house in Kirkland before the murders.
Kinsey added her brother had to regain the trust of his family and friends, and was particularly “nervous” about confronting his abusive father about his problem – a step he was told to take as part of his recovery.
Schierman’s stepfather, Dean Dubinsky, was the first to take the stand last week as a defense witness. He told the jury that his stepson once tried to commit suicide by overdosing on sleeping pills, but then he “threw up all over the place.” Schierman also got into a fight with his father, knocked him unconscious and then stepped on his hand and broke it.
But Kinsey doesn’t always remember things as being so bad with her brother, who grew up with him on the Redmond Plateau area of Sammamish during early childhood. There were family gatherings at their grandparent’s home in Edmonds, their first day of school, Kinsey’s high school graduation, summer trips to Mexico and building a fort out of drift wood at the beach on the pacific coast.
Conroy showed those photos to Schierman and the jury, along with one of Kinsey planting a big kiss on her brother.
King County Deputy Prosecutor Scott O’Toole did not cross-examine any of the family witnesses that day.
Entries from Schierman’s journal were also read.
Earlier last week, O’Toole and Kirkland Police Detective Brad Porter wrapped up their case in the penalty phase, bringing in only four witnesses – one relative per victim. That included Leonid Milkin, the widow.
The prosecution also showed a DVD video montage of the Milkin family for jurors.
