Susie Ko's killer receives death sentence

Susie Ko

JUSTICE IS SERVED, according to the family of Susie Ko, who was murdered four years ago.

A Contra Costa County jury found her killer, Darnell Washington, guilty and sentenced him to death Tuesday, Nov. 15. It was the first death sentenced meted out in the county in four years.

“This was obviously the verdict we wanted. … We are very excited, very relieved to move forward now that justice as finally been served,” Simon Ko, Susie Ko’s son, said after the trial.

A resident of Hercules, California located east of San Francisco Bay, Suisie Ko, 55, was murdered  in October of 2012. Washington and his wife randomly picked Ko when they saw her working on gardening project in her front yard They broke in her home, stabbed her to death then stole her car.

Ko's killing was the latest in a string of crimes committed by the Washingtons after Darnell Washington escaped from a San Bernardino County jail and had a shootout with a deputy.

While in Contra Costa County jail, he had a physical altercation with a deputy in an attempt to escape jail, according to the East Bay Times.

The sentence was delivered by the jury a week after Washington testified trying to elicit the jury's sympathy by telling his life story of rejection by his parents and youth spent in foster homes, group homes and youth detention facilities.

“(Death) is the punishment that justice requires,”Deputy D.A. Molly Manoukian said in a written statement after trial. She praised the jurors for delivering “justice to Mrs. Susie Ko and her loved ones.”

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