Rundle still facing robbery charge

Erica D. Johnson

Monday, Feb. 10, 2003 | 9:02 a.m.

When William Rundle goes on trial Wednesday, he will be facing charges of robbing his wife, Shirley, as well as killing her.

Attorneys for Rundle tried unsuccessfully on Friday to convince a District Court judge that their client can't be charged with robbery because the items he is accused of taking partially belonged to him.

Deputy Public Defender Curtis Brown told District Judge Joseph Pavlikowski that items Rundle allegedly took from the house he shared with his 63-year-old wife were considered community property.

Rundle, 56, also took cash out of the couple's joint bank account, Brown said.

"He took much less than half the community assets he would have been entitled to," Brown said. "He did not exceed what he was entitled to take."

But prosecutors claim Rundle stole items he had no right to, including some jewelry his wife was wearing at the time of her death, and pawned them at a Seattle pawn shop.

"Rings were taken off of the victim with such force that it left marks on her fingers," Chief Deputy District Attorney Chris Owens said.

Either way, Rundle is not entitled to community property if his wife died at his hands, Owens said.

"A murderer should not be able to profit from the fruits of his murder," Brown said.

Pavlikowski, who was sitting in for District Judge Kathy Hardcastle, said the questions of robbery and use of force should be left up to the jury to decide at the time of trial.

Defense attorneys also argued that state statutes concerning what constitutes a deadly weapon are "overly broad." Rundle is accused of killing his wife with a baseball bat.

"It basically allows the state to say that anything used in a manner to create death is constituted as a deadly weapon," Deputy Public Defender Nancy Lemcke said.

Pavlikowski said that, too, would be an issue left up to the jury to decide.

Jury selection is expected to begin Wednesday. A separate trial date in the alleged death of Rundle's 87-year-old mother, Willa Rundle, has not been scheduled.