Although Anja White was shot to death by her older brother, her killer, too, was a victim, their father said Monday.
An emotional John White pleaded for sympathy and mercy for his family and his 20-year-old son, Edward White, who he said was burdened with severe pressures and pain from his parents' divorce when he fired eight shots at his 15-year-old sister last year as she lay in bed.Ed Hutchinson also pleaded for a lesser one- to 15-year prison sentence for the Sandy man. Hutchinson said that in his 26 years as a mental-health therapist, he'd never seen as tragic a situation as that of the White family.
Even the judge said she was close to tears Monday. But she refused to issue the lesser prison sentence and ordered Edward White to serve a five-years-to-life term for the Jan. 9, 1992, murder.
"I am concerned about the fact that both your parents feel you are a victim here," said 3rd District Judge Anne Stirba. "I recognize that divorce can cause great problems . . . but lots of people come from divorced homes and they don't commit murder."
The judge said she is very sympathetic to the family but said they should not shoulder the burden for the killing. "I think we ought to look at who committed this crime," she said.
"Number one, it was premeditated; number 2, it was horrendous; and number 3, it was egregious."
Shortly after the shooting, Edward White told a 911 operator he was "fed up" with his sister and tired of doing the dishes and doing the wash. "And you thought she deserved to die," the judge reminded him.
White admitted he'd tried to kill his sister the day before he shot her and actually had a gun in his hands ready to do so, Stirba said. But his father came home and he didn't go through with it.
Stirba said White had also tried to kill his mother. He also told police he'd been thinking about killing his sister and the rest of his family since he was 12.
But Monday, White denied ever thinking about hurting his family. "I love my family very much and I wanted us to be together forever," he said in tears.
"I know what I did was wrong and I'm very sorry for what I did. . . . I was under a lot of stress. I thought I had to live up to everybody's expectations and what I should be and what I should do."
"He was placed in a situation he couldn't deal with any more, and he had no outlet," his father said. "If parents could really know what takes place . . . with a divorce in a family, I think they'd look at it very, very hard."
Hutchinson described how the family has been fractured by the tragedy. He said Edward White was angry because he had been in tremendous pain and suffering for years.
"Ed White is attempting to heal his family in the only way he knows how," Hutchinson said, referring to White's decision to plead guilty and prevent his family from suffering through the ordeal of a trial.
Salt Lake County deputy attorney Barbara Byrne said the family is in the "terrible position" of being both angry that Anja was killed, yet supportive of the man who killed her.
Days before her death, Anja White wrote a letter to her father saying she was tired of her brother's threats to kill her and the rest of the family and then live off the insurance. Her father, however, never saw the unfinished letter.
When Edward White dialed 911 shortly after shooting his sister, the operator asked him if he could try and help his sister, but he refused, saying he wouldn't touch her. When Sandy police arrived, White was shaking and told officers his dad was going to have a heart attack when he found out what he'd done to her.
The judge said White seemed to be more concerned with his own feelings than the fact that his sister was dead. She also pointed to his apparent callousness in telling police, "I pointed the gun at her. She turned her head and looked at me and I blew her brains out."
"I think you need to look inside yourself, Mr. White," Stirba said. "You were not helpless. You were 18 years old. . . . You did this, Mr. White."
Stirba did say, however, that she would send a letter to the Board of Pardons recommending that he not spend the rest of his life in prison. She also ordered him to pay restitution, including all costs of counseling for his family.