Today we are filing first degree murder charges against three defendants in the slaying of Ron Whitehead, a crime that occurred back in March of 2005 in the Sea-Tac area.

The Defendants are:

• Velma Ogden Whitehead, age 48, the wife of victim Ronald Whitehead;
• John Ogden, age 18, son of Velma Whitehead from a prior marriage;
• Wilson Sayachack, age 17, a friend of John Ogden, who will face adult prosecution.

The evidence in this case is detailed in the probable cause certification that we will hand out this morning.

The story it tells is of a cold blooded crime, an inside job of domestic violence set up to look like a random act of murder. It is also a story of outstanding police work, and a team of determined detectives who looked beyond superficial appearances to find the truth.

Upon first glance, it looked like a violent carjacking.

On March 18, 2005 at 5:45 in the morning, Ronald Whitehead was driving to his job at Boeing in his Ford Mustang. As he stopped at the intersection of 188 th and 8 th, near the SeaTac Airport, gunshots were heard, and a witness saw Ron Whitehead's body being pushed out of the car from the inside.

The car sped off. Police found that Ron Whitehead had been shot in the back of the head from close range while he was still in the car. He had also been shot three times in the back as he lay on the street.

The investigators examined this scene, and spoke with Ron Whitehead’s grieving widow, Velma Ogden Whitehead, at the family home just a few blocks away. Everything pointed to a random, senseless, violent car jacking by a desperate and dangerous criminal.

But other parts of the story did not ring true.

• How was the carjacker able to get into the car to fire the first shot? This was not an area where pedestrians were likely to be found and it would have been easy to drive away from any sign of trouble.

• Ron Whitehead’s car was found at about noon, parked behind a Des Moines healthcare clinic only a few miles away. Whoever committed the cold-blooded murder was not interested in the car. Ron Whitehead’s wallet was still in his pocket;

The motive for the extreme act of violence puzzled investigators.

• And the murder weapon appeared to be the same kind of 9 mm pistol that was registered to Ron Whitehead, but could not be located among the weapons turned over to police by Velma Whitehead.

As the months passed after the murder, investigators began to focus their attention back on Velma. They looked specifically into three areas:

1. Finances

2. Personal relationships

3. Telephone records

(Finances)

Velma told investigators right after the murder that the couple had $50,000 to $75,000 in credit card debt, mostly from expenses associated with the four rental properties that Ron Whitehead had purchased prior to their marriage ten years earlier.

She had told co-workers that her husband had cut her off from credit card spending due to her level of spending.

She worked as a clerk at an auto parts store in Renton to make ends meet.

But within six months of the murder, Velma Whitehead was a millionaire. She sold two of the properties that were now assets of Ron Whitehead’s estate, and realized a profit of $460,000 in cash. The other two Tacoma properties have an equity value of over $300,000.

She had also collected life insurance, retirement accounts and benefits from Boeing with a value in excess of $650,000.

She took trips to Las Vegas and bought new cars. Velma was living a new life style now that Ron was dead.

(Personal Relations)

The Whitehead's had been married for ten years, but things were not going well in the last few years.

Co-workers at an auto parts store stated that Velma frequently voiced her desire to leave her husband, but said that she could not financially afford to leave him

She claimed he was abusive and cut off her credit card spending.

It was also well known at the auto parts store that Velma and another employee had an on-going affair prior to and after Ron Whitehead’s murder.

(Phone Records:)

Numerous phone records were subpoenaed and analyzed by detectives. They revealed a high level of cell phone activity surrounding the murder.

Of particular interest, cell phone records show in the early morning hours just before the murder that Jonathan Ogden and his friend Wilson Sayachack exchanged 53 text messages.

Within 20 minutes after the murder, 8 more text messages were exchanged.

This information led detectives to arrest Sayachack. Investigators learned that the phone used by Sayachack had been provided by Velma Whitehead.

They also developed evidence to show that Sayachack had come to the Whitehead residence early in the morning of the murder.

He had been provided the gun by John Ogden and a pair of gloves by Velma. He was allowed to hide in the trunk of the Ford Mustang, which is separated from the interior of the vehicle only by a folding seat.

The numerous text messages sent by John Ogden to Sayachack happened while Sayachack was hiding in the trunk of the Mustang to alert him of the status of Ron Whitehead's preparation to leave the house.

We allege that John Ogden joined Ron Whitehead in the Mustang in the front passenger seat.

The evidence will show that as the car stopped at the intersection, Sayachack pushed his way from the trunk into the rear passenger area of the Mustang.

We further allege that Wilson Sayachack shot Ron Whitehead at very close range in the back of the head.

The evidence will show that John Ogden pushed the victim out of the car, and then shot him three more times in the back.

There are numerous other details in the certificate of probable cause. What that document shows, most of all, is a great deal of determined police work.

I want to take a moment and recognize the outstanding work by Detective Thien Do and Sgt. Jon Mattsen of the King County Sheriff's Office.

It was also a true team effort. When the case finally broke last Thursday, over 20 detectives from the Sheriff's Office were deployed to arrest and interview the suspects and execute search warrants.

This case has been handled in our office by the Cold Case Unit that we started last fall.

More than 15 months went by before this case was solved, but the deputy prosecutors in the Cold Case Unit were available to assist the detectives every step of the way.

I want to recognize the work of Craig Peterson and Carla Carlstrom who worked on this case, and Kristin Richardson, who supervises the Cold Case Unit.

Sometimes first appearances are misleading; sometimes they are intended to mislead.

This crime was designed to look like a random carjacking.

Velma Whitehead's repeated interviews with the media and her televised pleas for justice for the killer were a part of the plan, and a part of the cover-up.

Without the outstanding investigative efforts of the Sheriff's Office and the Cold Case Unit, this case would still be viewed as a senseless murder attributed to the random violence of an unknown carjacker.

Instead, we now see what we are reluctant to see -- a man who was set up and murdered by his own family for financial reasons.

The three defendants are now in custody, facing charges of first-degree murder.

If convicted as charged, they face prison sentences of 25 to 32 years.

For Additional Information See: Charges Filed in Ron Whitehead Murder

Dated: June 27, 2006