Court ruling will mean new sentences for two Whatcom County men convicted as juvenile killers

A split Washington Supreme Court ruled Thursday that sentencing juveniles to life without parole is unconstitutional, a decision that could mean a possible release from prison for two Whatcom County men.

The 5-4 ruling came in the case of Brian Bassett of McCleary, who was a teenager when he was convicted in 1996 of three charges of aggravated first-degree murder. A year earlier, he fatally shot his parents and drowned his 5-year-old brother in a bathtub.

The decision follows a series of recent court rulings both statewide and nationally that address juvenile offenders, The Olympian reported.

In 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled mandatory life sentences without the possibility of parole for juvenile offenders were unconstitutional, since they did not take into account the offender’s “diminished culpability and heightened capacity for change.”

In response, the Washington Legislature said state courts should consider “mitigating factors that account for the diminished culpability of youth” — including age, life experience and chances for rehabilitation — before sentencing 16- and 17-year-olds to life without parole. It also said those who had been sentenced to life without parole as juveniles should be resentenced.

Whatcom’s own teen killers, Ryan Alexander and Terence “Terry” Weaver, will get new sentencing hearings after Thursday’s ruling.

Alexander used a massive, fatal dose of insulin to kill a young neighbor boy in 2002, and Weaver raped and killed a woman in 1996.

Both were convicted of aggravated first-degree murder and were sentenced to life without parole.

That sentence is now off the table after Thursday’s ruling, though the convictions will stand for Alexander and Weaver. Both were 16 at the time of the respective murders.

Weaver, 38, and Alexander, 32, are expected to be resentenced sometime next year.

Weaver is currently serving his sentence at Monroe Correctional Complex. Alexander is at the Washington State Penitentiary under close-custody supervision, meaning he has restricted movement throughout the prison.

Case histories

Both Whatcom slayings left neighbors worried about their safety, Whatcom County Prosecutor David McEachran told The Bellingham Herald in July.

In 1996, Terry Weaver lived with his mother and stepfather in the Plaza Park trailer park on Birch Bay-Lynden Road. Weaver had moved from Arizona and had enrolled in Blaine High School that year. The family had been having problems in Arizona, where Weaver had two convictions for burglary and one for arson, and moved to get a fresh start, according to stories in The Bellingham Herald.

Kelli L. Scott, then 35, lived in a chalet-style home at 4411 Birch Bay-Lynden Road, across the road from the trailer park where Weaver lived. Scott had moved to the area from San Diego, and worked at the Inn at Semiahmoo for roughly 8 years.

Scott’s home had been burglarized in December 1995, and she had suspected Weaver. On Feb. 12, 1996, Weaver grabbed a steak knife and went to Scott’s house with the intent to rape and kill her, according to Herald archives. Weaver then raped and beat Scott before he strangled and stabbed her to death. A coworker found her the next morning after she didn’t show up for her shift.

Weaver went to school the next day with bloodstains on his pants and was arrested shortly afterward.

Weaver was convicted of aggravated first-degree murder and first-degree rape in Feb. 1997 after a one-day non-jury trial.

Nearly a decade later, in 2002, Ryan Alexander, then 16, was living in the Columbia neighborhood on Jaeger Street near 8-year-old Michael “Mikey” L. Busby Jr.

Busby, a Columbia Elementary School student, had recently moved with his family from Kent and lived in a well-maintained, one-story home at the corner of Jefferson and Jaeger streets, according to Herald archives.

Alexander, meanwhile, was well-known to neighbors and police, who had held special meetings to discuss the teenager and his past problems, according to Herald archives. Alexander had been convicted in 1998 at age 12 of reckless burning when he tried to burn down two houses — one occupied, one unoccupied. He also was convicted of residential burglary in 1999 when he stole from his neighbor, and of third-degree theft in 2001 when he stole a classmate’s cellphone.

On April 10, 2002, Alexander was convicted of two counts of theft and was sentenced to home detention, supervised by juvenile probation. Eight days later, Busby had gone on a class field trip to Maritime Heritage Park and wanted see the park a few blocks from his house.

After the boy didn’t return home, his parents called police and a search started. During that time, Alexander’s mother called police saying her son wasn’t home, and neighbors had reported seeing Alexander with Busby, according to Herald archives.

Busby’s body was found the next day near the Pacific Concrete Industries plant at 2800 West St. — the site eventually would become part of Squalicum Creek Park —by a woman walking her dog. Busby had been bound, choked, cut and murdered with a fatal injection of insulin.

Police arrested Alexander at Bellingham High School later that day. Alexander told police Busby had been “bugging him,” but that he didn’t plan to hurt the boy when he took him to a vacant lot near their houses, according to Herald archives.

Alexander was convicted for aggravated first-degree murder and kidnapping in March 2004 after a jury trial.

In 2007, Busby’s family sued the county saying they could have done more to monitor Alexander while he was on probation, and they eventually settled the case for $500,000.