It was a tragic twist of fate that 84-year-old Ernie Tullis was working at the Interbay storage facility Saturday morning, Oct. 22.
It was actually his day off, but he was covering for a co-worker.
According to KOMO-TV, some time that morning Eric Blaine Evans, 46, came to the storage facility, apparently posing as an interested customer. Evans, who was released from prison in 2006 after serving 18 years for beating a teenage girl to death, allegedly stabbed Tullis and then ran off with the wounded man’s credit cards. Tullis later died at Harborview Medical Center.
Police figure Evans got away with about $200, his widow, Pat Tullis, told KOMO-TV.
Police killed Evans Sunday afternoon, Oct. 23, after detectives confronted him in a Belltown neighborhood. According to police reports, Evans attacked the detectives and they shot him. He had been identified from video pictures from ATM and other surveillance photos that, according to The Seattle Times, recorded him attempting to use the slain victim’s credit cards.
The horrific crime has shocked Seattle and left many questioning the state’s sentencing guidelines for first-degree murder.
Evans had previously spent 18 years in prison after his 1988 conviction on first-degree murder charges in the death of Teresa Marie Arbini, 17. The teen had apparently been beaten with an aluminum baseball bat and strangled and then placed in a garage next to the home where Evans rented a room. An autopsy indicated that Arbini suffered a fractured jaw, skull fractures and chest injuries.
According to the Times, Arbini had last been seen getting into a taxi with Evans about 1 a.m. in the University District. Later that day, a housemate of Evans had called police to the house where they found Arbini’s remains.
Current King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg, who at the time was a deputy prosecutor, tried the case and charged Evans with first-degree murder. He contended that Evans beat Arbini while trying to rape her.
Dan Donohoe of the King County Prosecutor’s office said that the most severe type of capital punishment is aggravated first-degree murder, which requires an “aggravating factor,” such as rape, robbery, the victim being a law enforcement officer or many others. Aggravated first-degree murder is punishable by life in prison or the death penalty. Because the prosecutor’s office was unable to prove the sexual assault charge against Evans, he was found guilty of the second-most serious form of capital punishment, first-degree murder. That crime is punishable by as much as 27 years in prison.
Exactly why Evans was released early is not clear. It is possible that he was given a reduced sentence for good behavior, accounting for nine years being taken off his sentence.
On Oct. 24, Satterberg released the following statement: “I will never forget the excessive brutality of the murder of Teresa Arbini and the odd manner of Mr. Evans, who smiled and giggled throughout the gruesome trial. He got the maximum sentence for murder in the first degree. It would be sad, but not surprising, to find out that he continued his violence against vulnerable victims upon his release from prison.”
For Ernie Tullis’ family, they will remember a man who was passionate about golf, loved his family and lived for the simple joys in life.
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