Aunt of Pierce County girl who saw father commit murder describes lasting trauma
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- Judge imposes 29 year, seven month prison term for murder of Richard Cooley
- Jurors found aggravating impact on the child, enabling an exceptional sentence.
- Prosecutors cited circumstances of the death and effect on child to ask for 40-year term.
Little girls shouldn’t have to wonder what the point of life is if it only ends in violence, but Casey Christianson’s daughter has seen death up close. Hiding behind a door in a Pierce County trailer, she watched as a man’s life was extinguished by her father’s hands.
Christianson was in Superior Court on Friday to be sentenced for the murder of his roommate, 37-year-old Richard Cooley, but the traumatic effect Cooley’s death by strangulation had on Christianson’s then 6-year-old daughter became a focus of the proceeding.
It was also why Judge Karena Kirkendoll extended Christianson’s prison sentence by five years beyond the standard range, giving him an exceptional sentence of 29 years, seven months.
At trial in September, jurors who found the defendant guilty of intentional and felony second-degree murder made special findings that the crime had a destructive and foreseeable impact on Christianson’s daughter, an aggravating factor that allowed an exceptional sentence to be imposed.
Cynthia Lamb, the great-aunt and guardian of Christianson’s daughter, told the court that when the girl came into her custody in November 2023, she was broken, thin and pale, with a smile that masked terror with forced cheerfulness. She talked about death constantly, Lamb said, and even her happy drawings had scars, depicting animals with missing eyes or limbs.
Lamb said she grieved for the little girl who deserved laughter and love, and she stood in court to make clear the depths of the damage her father inflicted.
“No child should ever see such brutality, let alone from the man meant to protect her,” Lamb said. “That moment helped destroy her trust in adults and carved permanent fears on her soul.”
In her own letter to the court, Christianson’s daughter said she hid in a closet with her dog after she saw her father kill Cooley, and she feared her father would kill her, too. The letter was read aloud by deputy prosecuting attorney Sarah Park. The girl described having nightmares and struggling not to think about the murder. She said she would never forget what her father did.
“I want him to stay in jail at least to the point where I don’t remember him. And that’s pretty much never,” the girl’s victim-impact letter stated.
Christianson, 49, sat in court in orange and pink jail clothes. When it was his turn to speak at the end of the hearing, he said he suspected that his daughter had been manipulated into writing the letter or to even have those thoughts.
“I never wanted her to go through all this, but I maintain my innocence,” Christianson said.
“She didn’t see me do anything because it didn’t happen,” he added.
Victim found dead days after defendant’s assault arrest
Christianson’s father found Cooley dead Oct. 25, 2023, in a trailer on the father’s property in Parkland, two days after Sheriff’s Office deputies arrested Christianson for allegedly assaulting his father in front of them.
Deputies were there for a welfare check after concerns were raised about Christianson’s daughter not being enrolled in school, according to court documents, and possible lewd conduct between Christianson and his daughter. Christianson’s father, who also lived on the property, also had been locked out for several days.
Christianson’s father tried to enter with deputies standing by, but Christianson reportedly shoved him away and tried to close the door on deputies, who pushed through while advising he was under arrest. Deputies arrested him, then spoke with his daughter, who had a black eye. She said her father had been “strangling people” the last few days and had strangled “Richard.”
At the time, deputies did not know who “Richard” was and didn’t know anyone lived in the trailer on the property. Two days later, Christianson’s father found Cooley and called the authorities.
Christianson faces additional charges in a separate case for the alleged assault on his father and the alleged sexual assault of his daughter. Prosecutors have charged him with first-degree rape of a child, two counts of second-degree assault of a child, two counts of fourth-degree assault, third-degree assault and felony harassment with threats to kill.
Prosecutors ask for 40-year sentence
In court Friday, deputy prosecuting attorney Kara Sanchez recounted the medical examiner’s testimony about Cooley’s death. She said evidence showed Cooley fought to live. His fingernails were broken, and he had abrasions on his neck from struggling against being strangled.
“Because Mr. Cooley’s death took that long, much longer than the fraction of a second that it takes to pull a trigger and fire a gun, as I argued in closing, Mr. Christianson really had to mean it,” Sanchez said. “He really had to want Mr. Cooley to die.”
Sanchez said those circumstances alone justified a high-end sentence, but it was the effect this crime had on Christiansons’ daughter that made it warrant a punishment beyond the standard range. Prosecutors asked for a 40-year sentence.
Christianson’s attorney from the Department of Assigned Counsel, Gaurav Sharma, asked Kirkendoll to impose a sentence of 12 years, 6 months, below the standard range.
Sharma said he had documentation of Christianson’s mental health issues and had witnessed his “erratic” behavior throughout the trial and an inability to regulate emotion. Sharma said all of these things had substantially impaired Christianson’s judgment at the time of the offense.
The defense attorney also disputed the egregiousness of what Christianson’s daughter witnessed and argued it did not justify the sentence prosecutors were seeking.
“Forty years sentence, just based on a 6-year-old observing Mr. Christianson from some distance without anything else out there does not seem proportionate,” Sharma said. “What the court has seen and evaluations have shown through this case, based on what evidence came out, that this was more impulsive behavior and mental deterioration, not planning or malice.”
Christianson’s mother, father and a woman who dated him for five years also addressed the court during the hearing. They each described him as a compassionate and kind person who had faced significant challenges with his mental health and substance use.
At the end of the hearing, Kirkendoll said there was goodness in everyone, including Christianson, but everyone was here today because he had been convicted of second-degree murder. Kirkendoll said prosecutors’ recommendation was in effect a life sentence, and in her opinion it was excessive.
However, Kirkendoll said it was “deplorable” that Christianson did not at all address the trauma his daughter has gone through when he allocuted.
“Instead, he pooh-poohs it,” Kirkendoll said. “He denies it. He disavows it.”
This story was originally published December 13, 2025 at 10:08 AM.
