The defense and prosecution said at the start of the first-degree murder trial of Bria Jessie Danner on Wednesday that it wasn’t a question of whether Danner stabbed Sung Sil Kim to death in the lobby of the Aberdeen motel she co-owned with her husband.
The question was whether Danner was legally sane that Jan. 30, 2019 afternoon.
Grays Harbor County Chief Criminal Deputy Jason Walker outlined the details of that day to the jury during his opening remarks. Surveillance from an auto dealership across the street from the GuestHouse Inn in the 600 block of West Heron Street showed Danner removing a backpack and stashing it in a bush outside the motel.
Danner then entered the lobby, poured herself a cup of coffee, removed a backpack from her shoulder, then stabbed Kim several times, all caught on lobby surveillance video. She then pushes a chair at Kim, knocking her down. Danner heads for the exit, but does not exit, instead returning to stab Kim several more times before existing, retrieving the backpack she left outside, and making her way eventually to the Safeway down the street, where she purchased a coffee.
Walker said Danner’s defense attorney would bring forward two experts to claim that Danner was legally insane at the time of the murder. The state, he said, will bring its own to dispute that fact and said he would be asking the jury at the end of the proceedings to return with a guilty verdict for first-degree premeditated murder with a deadly weapon.
Danner’s defense attorney, David Arcuri, told the jury there was little doubt that his client killed Kim, “but that’s not the issue in this trial.”
Arcuri said he will bring foward a forensic psychologist that has performed evaluations in more than 400 sanity cases. Of those, said Arcuri, that witness has only declared 10 of those fit the legal definition of not guilty by reason of insanity, Danner being one of them.
A lengthy jury selection process from a pool of more than 80 potential jurors lasted until just after noon. The list of 14 jurors, including two alternates, includes 12 women and two men.
Witness testimony began Wednesday with Kim’s husband testifying for the prosecution. He described, through an interpreter, finding his wife on the lobby floor with three or four stab wounds to her left side.
The defense will show the jury the surveillance video of the murder itself, and produce several Aberdeen Police Department and emergency services personnel who responded to the scene.
