Sentence reduction for man convicted of murdering Bellevue family in 1997

BELLEVUE, Wash. – A man who murdered a Bellevue family as a teenager received a reduced sentence Thursday afternoon in King County Juvenile Court after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling ruled that juvenile offenders should not be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole can be.

Judge Jason Poydras commuted 45-year-old Alex Baranyi's life without parole sentence to 46 years to life for the four counts of aggravated murder in the January 1997 deaths of the Wilson family.

While Baranyi did not speak during Thursday's hearing, Judge Poydras acknowledged the difficulties for the victims' family members.

“You were forced to relive the events of this case while having very little control over the process,” Poydras said. “Your love for your family and ultimately your strength to persevere through this process are undeniable.”

On January 3, 1997, Baranyi and his friend David Anderson lured their former classmate Kimberly Wilson, 20, to Woodridge Water Tower Park in Bellevue and strangled her with a garrote. The pair then went to Wilson's home and used bats and knives to murder her father, William, 52, her mother, Rosilee, 46, and her 17-year-old sister Julia.

Bellevue police arrested Baranyi and Anderson shortly after the murders and both were charged and sentenced as adults in King County Superior Court. A few years after the crime, both were sentenced to life in prison without parole.

In Miller v. Alabama in 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court found that sentencing a juvenile to life in prison without the possibility of parole violated the Eighth Amendment's ban on “cruel and unusual punishment.”

In the 2014 legislative session, Washington lawmakers updated state law to reflect new precedent and mandated that all juveniles sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole be resentenced.

“I think the hardest thing for us is calling these families after 25 or 30 years about cases that they thought they could have put the criminal aspect behind them,” said John Castleon, a senior assistant prosecutor in the King District Attorney's Office County “I can never imagine what it’s like for families to go through this initially and then years later.”

Before Baranyi's sentencing, Castleton and his colleague Amy Meckling prepared a new memorandum outlining the brutality of the crime.

“The evidence established that Baranyi and Anderson were fundamentally motivated by a desire to experience killing people,” the memo said. “Baranyi knew exactly what he was doing when he murdered the Wilsons.” He had spent more than a year planning this and he wanted to do it before he turned 18 to avoid the death penalty if caught . He planned and carried out the murders exactly as he planned.

The memo describes the killings as a “thrilling murder of an entire family” and claims Baranyi was fascinated by violence.

“Murderous thirst is not a normal state for a brain, juvenile or not,” the memo said. “Baranyi did not lure Kim Wilson to a park and strangle him because he was 17 years old and his brain was not yet fully developed.” His long-standing plan to commit a violent and brutal murder in a very specific way (with baseball bats and knives). , wasn't even the least bit impulsive. Nor was his desire to experience a murder in a specific period of time (before he turned 18) in order to avoid the death penalty.”

Defense attorneys argued that Baranyi's youth and upbringing impaired his judgment leading up to the murders and that he was in an “obedient relationship” with his co-defendant, David Anderson.

“However, what distinguishes Mr. Baranyi more than any of his accomplishments in prison over the past 25 years is the piercing remorse he feels for the loss of four innocent lives as a teenager,” Baranyi’s attorney, Katie Farden, wrote in the sentencing memo. Unlike his co-defendant, Mr. Anderson, who maintained his innocence until Miller was adjudicated, Mr. Baranyi has long shown that he recognizes the immeasurable suffering he has caused Wilson's family and his Bellevue community.”

In the memorandum, Baranyi apologized for the crime and said the Wilson family murders haunted him.

“The imposition of a life sentence has weighed heavily on me since the beginning of my incarceration, but I have realized that it is more lenient than the sentence I imposed on my victims and their families,” Baranyi said. “My victims and their survivors have no recourse, no chance of parole and no release date. They have done nothing to deserve such a punishment. The pain I have caused can never be repaired and the lives I have taken can never be returned.” Every day I wake up in prison hoping that one day it will end. But the people I hurt have no such hope. It's an injustice that depresses me every time I think about it.

Prosecutors denied that the killings were due to Baranyi's youth.

“The murder of the entire Wilson family was not an impetuous, impulsive, rash act by a child who was too developmentally immature to fully realize the implications of his actions or to conform his behavior to the law,” the prosecutors’ memo said. “Baranyi he craved murder for murder's sake, and he spent years planning it.”

As part of the new sentence, Judge Poydras commended Baranyi for the approximately 28 years he has already served. Baranyi will be eligible for parole in about 18 years, when he will be in his early 60s.

Anderson was re-sentenced to 33 years to life in prison in 2022, but prosecutors successfully appealed the sentence. Anderson will be resentenced, but a date has not yet been set.

“The Wilson family – this is their fourth conviction. There will be at least a fifth against Mr. Anderson and it is difficult to explain to them why we are here,” Castleton said.