Washington woman serving decades in 2010 Craiglist killing gets punishment slashed at resentencing

Peter Talbot / The News Tribune (TNS)
Posted 1/11/25

A woman serving a nearly 72-year prison sentence for her role in a 2010 homicide in Edgewood that began with a Craigslist ad for a diamond ring saw her punishment cut to 32-and-a-half years Friday …

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Washington woman serving decades in 2010 Craiglist killing gets punishment slashed at resentencing

Posted

A woman serving a nearly 72-year prison sentence for her role in a 2010 homicide in Edgewood that began with a Craigslist ad for a diamond ring saw her punishment cut to 32-and-a-half years Friday after her murder conviction was overturned.

Amanda Christine Knight was one of four people who went to the home of 43-year-old Jim Sanders under the guise of purchasing the ring. While Knight and an accomplice were discussing it, the accomplice drew a handgun, according to prosecutors, and Sanders and his wife were restrained in zip ties.

Sanders’ two sons were in the home, ages 10 and 14, and they were brought into the kitchen at gunpoint. The family was beaten, and while Knight ransacked bedrooms, Sanders was shot to death in front of his wife and children by Kiyoshi Higashi when the father tried to protect his older son from being pistol-whipped.

In November 2023, a divided opinion from the Washington State Supreme Court overturned Knight’s conviction by a jury for first-degree murder. The lead opinion was that there wasn’t sufficient evidence to support Knight’s conviction in the particular way it was presented to the jury.

In Pierce County Superior Court on Friday, elected Prosecutor Mary Robnett sought to convince Judge Thomas P. Quinlan to impose high-end punishments on Knight’s remaining convictions: two counts of first-degree robbery, two counts of second-degree assault and first-degree burglary, including five firearm sentencing enhancements.

Robnett argued for a 33-year sentence, calling the crime a dreadful and violent attack. She prosecuted Knight and her three codefendants, Higashi, Clabon Berniard and Joshua Reese, in four separate trials following their arrests. All were originally convicted of multiple offenses including murder and continue to serve long prison sentences each close to or greater than 100 years.

The prosecutor pointed out that the crime was committed in a premeditated way. Knight waited until after dark to go to Sanders’ home to avoid being detected, backed her car in for a quick getaway and used a Bluetooth device to signal to two codefendants waiting in the car to come inside after Sanders and his wife were restrained in zip ties.

Many of the items taken from the Sanders’ home were pawned and sold the next day. Robnett said Knight and two of the others fled to California, where they were arrested for a traffic violation and then recognized at a jail due to a televised news story.

Knight’s defense attorney, Paula Olson, requested a 21-year sentence, arguing that Knight’s youthfulness when the crime occurred — she was 21 — reduces her culpability, and that based on her abusive childhood, she may have been reacting in fear of her older, male codefendants.

Olson also highlighted Knight’s accomplishments while in prison, including working as a technical drafter creating drawings for architects and engineers to pay off $15,000 of restitution and legal financial obligations. She also works with Prison Pet Partnership training service animals for veterans.

Sanders’ widow, Charlene, and his younger brother, Derek, testified in court Friday about how this crime had affected their family. Derek Sanders asked that the judge impose the maximum sentence allowed.

Charlene Sanders said she believed her husband would still be alive if not for Knight, who she said set the whole crime up when she convinced him that she wanted to buy the ring for her mother for Mother’s Day.

It was Knight who talked to her husband about the ring, and Charlene Sanders said she was convinced her female voice softened his heart to the point that he let his guard down. Sanders said Knight was responsible for his “pointless” death.

“We have spent almost 15 years trying to go on with life in the midst of all this PTSD, and from what I have witnessed I will say this. The evil act has altered my son, Chandler’s life, and his future, so I cannot even imagine how detrimental it still must be for Jimmy Jr., losing his dad right before his eyes.”

Knight, 36, was the last to testify in a courtroom packed with at least 40 people in the gallery. Through tears, she said that over the course of her prison sentence she had been asked if she thought she deserved to go home.



“There have been so many days where I wish it could have been an easy answer of yes, but even today sitting here, I can’t say that I deserve that,” Knight said. “I can’t say that I deserve that forgiveness. But I do ask for mercy, and I ask for grace.”

When the crime happened almost 15 years ago, Knight said she didn’t take responsibility, she was a liar, and at the beginning of her prison sentence she couldn’t fathom why she owed as much responsibility as her codefendants. She said it took her a long time to truly understand that had she not driven to the Sanders’ home, not made a phone call, the Sanders family would still have a father for two sons, a husband to a wife, a brother.

“I did more than take Mr. Sanders’ life through my actions,” Knight said. “I took safety. I took trust and abused it. So much more was lost and they did not deserve that. I’m sorry.”

The bulk of the punishment Knight received was the result of five firearm sentencing enhancements included in her convictions that are mandated to be served consecutively and amounted to 21 years.

Time imposed for the types of offenses Knight was convicted of in 2011 is to be served at the same time due to state law. The most severe of those crimes was first-degree robbery, for which Quinlan imposed 138 months, just above the middle of the standard range.

After court adjourned, Derek Sanders, 51, told The News Tribune the sentence Quinlan handed Knight was as good as his family could hope for and he was happy with the outcome. He said he felt Knight had true remorse and that prison had been good for her. But he said that didn’t dismiss the fact that she needs to serve for what she did.

“She was young when she went in, but definitely able to make decisions,” Derek Sanders said. “She did the same thing two weeks earlier, so it wasn’t an act of where it was impulsive. It was something that she’d already done once. She knew what she was getting into.”

Most of Sanders’ family still lives locally, he said, and they still get together to celebrate Jim Sanders’ birthday and recognize the day that he died.

Robnett told The News Tribune she was heartbroken that Jim Sanders’ family was back in court Friday. She said she agreed with Derek Sanders and admired what Knight had done in the years since the crime. Robnett said Knight’s words in court were moving.

As for the punishment given by the judge, Robnett said she thought Quinlan did justice within the law.

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