Lawyers for 15-year-old suspect withdraw from Seattle murder case upon accusations of evidence tampering after judge grants them access to home of massacred family

A Nov. 5 motion by the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office obtained by KOMO News claimed there is photographic evidence showing items from the crime scene were removed or altered while defense attorneys for the 15-year-old boy charged with the murders were inside the home.

A judge previously ordered that the boy who is accused of killing his parents, Mark and Sarah Humiston, as well as his younger siblings; Benjamin, 13, Joshua, 9, and 7-year-old Katheryn, not be named.

Activist Judge Veronica Galvan granted a motion by the boy’s attorneys to enter the home without sheriff's office supervision for a 10-hour window on Oct 29 to take pictures, a 3D scan of the interior of the home, and search the suspect’s bedroom. Galvan granted the order despite prosecutors opposing the defense having access to the house in the first place.

Galvan’s activism is well documented. Last month she released a 17-year-old suspect in a vehicular homicide that killed a military veteran. In July she released teens who discharged firearms at a local parade. In February she released a 12-year-old who allegedly used a ghost gun in a carjacking.

In 2019 she released a homeless drug addict who was accused of bashing a musician over the head with a baseball bat as he was leaving a nightclub. She previously released prolific offender Travis Berge who went on to kill his girlfriend by driving nails into her head before he drowed himself in a vat of bleach.

In 2017, she voided a ballot measure that would have banned heroin injection sites.

She does not hide her motivations and posted on social media that her activism was “resistance” and that the justice system “has been complicit in perpetuation oppression.” She claimed that her judicial colleagues support her endeavors.

Galvan’s order did prohibit the defense lawyers from removing items from the home, or searching through "file cabinets, containers, drawers, digital devices, and the like" and only allowed the defense team to “view items that are in plain view.” The sheriff's office was not there to monitor their activities.

According to prosecutors, the King County Sheriff’s Office (KCSO) documented the home before and after the defense team’s access and alleges a bottle of Clorox wipes from the home is missing, as well as backpacks belonging to the child victims which were moved or opened or moved.

Prosecutors are seeking an order to force the defense to turn over all material they collected or documented during their time at the crime scene.

Prosecutors are attempting to move the case into adult court since the teen is accused of shooting his family members on the morning of Oct. 21 and attempting to make it look like his brother had killed the family then himself. The teen even called 911 to report that his younger brother had shot the family.

His 11-year-old sister survived and ran to a neighbor’s home to report that she had seen that her 15-year-old brother killed the family. She said he touched the necks and chests of the other family members to “see if they were alive.” The girl told investigators that her 15-year-old brother was the only one of the siblings who knew the combination of the home’s gun safe. Reinforcing the sister’s story, detectives said the 13-year-old boy died from multiple gunshot wounds that were fired from farther than two feet away and one of the shots that killed him entered from the back of his head, according to an autopsy.

Two days after the Oct. 29 search, defense attorney Amy Parker and co-counsel Molly Campera filed a notice to the court that they were withdrawing as counsel for the 15-year-old suspect and his defense is now being handled by a different firm.

A motion hearing for the case has been scheduled for Dec. 2 to decide if the case will remain in juvenile court.