WA: violate plea deal, consequences follow

The last time I posted about this mess up in Sno. Co., a commenter asked, "What am I missing? How is there no double jeopardy here?" Fair question.

Twist in slaying case brings admitted killer back to court

Nearly four years ago, Daniel Larson told a judge and jury how he used a necktie to strangle Anastasia King while her husband held her down...

For that testimony, Snohomish County prosecutors reduced Larson's charge to second-degree murder in the 2000 death of King, a mail-order bride from Kyrgyzstan. And it helped convict her husband, Indle King Jr., of first-degree murder.

But Larson, 25, is back in Snohomish County Superior Court, scheduled to be arraigned today on a first-degree murder charge for the crime. Prosecutors filed the new charge after the courts ruled Larson violated the terms of his plea agreement by petitioning to withdraw his original plea.

Neither side has seen a case like Larson's, and they agree trying a man for a crime he's been convicted of will be tricky. Typically, the constitutional protection against double jeopardy prevents a person from being tried twice for the same crime, but Larson waived that right in his plea agreement, prosecutors say.

"Tricky," as in, something bad and weird that happens when you persist against your p.d.'s advice. Technically, I suppose that previously pleading guilty and not actually going through his own trial, and then trying to withdraw the plea, might account for the tricky pickle in which Larson finds himself, but as regular readers know, I'm no expert.