This account of the fatal home-invasion robbery at an Edgewood home late last month was compiled from court documents, official statements, interviews with witnesses and media accounts.
Four people have been arrested and charged with first-degree murder, first-degree burglary and two counts each of first-degree robbery and second-degree assault.
Kiyoshi Alan Higashi, 22; Clabon Terrel Berniard, 23; Joshua Nathan Reese, 20; and Amanda Christine Knight, 21, have pleaded not guilty. His wife and two school-age sons were upstairs when someone came to the front door.
It was after 9 o’clock on April 28 – a school night – so maybe James Sanders’ family was doing homework or getting ready for bed.
A woman and a man were on the front porch when Sanders pulled open the door to his home in the 3600 block of 106th Avenue Court East in Edgewood.
It was a bit late for visitors, but Sanders, 43, had been expecting someone to come by.
He’d talked to a woman on the phone several times about a diamond ring he’d advertised on Craigslist, the popular classified advertising website. He’d given her his address, so she could swing past and take a look.
Neighbors said Sanders was excited to be helping his family through Craigslist, where he’d also advertised coins and a crystal necklace.
Sanders invited the potential buyers inside, and the three of them walked into the kitchen. Maybe Sanders offered his guests something to drink. That wouldn’t be unlike the man friends and relatives described as a Christian gentleman.
The couple had questions about the ring, so Sanders called for his wife, Charlene, to come downstairs.
It was then that the horrible truth became clear to Sanders: The young woman and man he’d let inside his home had evil on their minds.
Instead of questions about the ring, one of them pulled out a handgun and ordered Sanders and his wife to the floor, where their hands were bound with plastic ties.
Seconds later, two more men barged into the house. They went upstairs and ordered the boys – James Jr., 14, and Chandler, 10 – downstairs at gunpoint.
The boys later described the guns as “cowboy-type” pistols. Detectives interpreted that to mean revolvers.
The newcomers forced the boys into the kitchen and told them to lie facedown next to their parents.
The robbers then began to yell at James Sanders to tell them where he kept his safe, even though he didn’t have one.
At one point, one of the assailants kicked Charlene Sanders in the head and told her to stop looking at them. Then, a robber put his gun to the back of her head and began counting backwards, “three, two …”
She begged the assailants to take what they wanted.
“Just don’t kill us,” she said.
Despite the threats and violence, Charlene Sanders got a good enough look at the intruders to later pick the woman – thought to be Amanda Christine Knight – out of a photo montage and to tentatively identify one of the men – thought to be Kiyoshi Alan Higashi – who has a distinctive tattoo on his neck.
One of the intruders then began hitting James Sanders in the head with a gun.
The sight of his father being beaten moved something within James Jr., who jumped up and tried to intervene. He got smacked with a gun himself, suffering a concussion.
His family being attacked on all sides, James Sanders fought back. He broke free of his zip ties and launched himself at one of the gunmen.
One of the robbers fired a shot, which hit James Sanders.
“The suspects then drug … James from the kitchen to the living room where he was shot several more times,” according to a Pierce County Sheriff’s Department affidavit seeking a search warrant in the case.
Detectives now believe Higashi did the shooting.
James Sanders suffered three gunshot wounds: One each in the knee, thigh and shoulder.
He died inside his home with his wife’s arms around him.
While the beating and shooting were under way, the female intruder moved throughout the Sanders’ home stealing anything of value. She ransacked the bedrooms, taking credit cards, debit cards, cell phones, personal identification cards and an iPod.
Before they left, the intruders grabbed the ring that had been advertised on Craigslist and snatched the wedding ring from Charlene Sanders’ finger. (Both rings were recovered this week at a San Francisco jewelry shop.)
Then, the intruders were gone.
At 9:28 p.m., Chandler picked up a telephone and called 911.
“My dad’s been shot,” he told the operator.
Adam Lynn: 253-597-8644
adam.lynn@thenewstribune.com
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