BY JACOB JONES
The Daily World
For the first time since he gunned down the mother of his children in May, Charles E. Jefferson Jr. apologized this morning for her death as he prepared to accept his prison sentence.
Jefferson, 39, of Renton, appeared in an orange jail jumpsuit and shackles. He turned around to address his victim’s family as they sat in the front row of the Grays Harbor Superior Courtroom.
“I want to tell you all that I’m sorry,” he said. “And hopefully one day in your hearts you all can forgive me. … I’m sorry for what I’ve done to your family.”
As he turned back to face the court, a woman in the audience quietly called to him.
“It was your family too.”
Jefferson pleaded guilty last month to first-degree murder in the premeditated death of his longtime girlfriend Rebbecca Dietz, 28, of Aberdeen, who suffered at least five gunshot wounds on May 3. She later died from her injuries on June 9 after struggling to recover for more than a month.
Judge Gordon Godfrey ordered Jefferson to serve the maximum sentence of nearly 34 years in prison, saying sentencing regulations would not allow him to order the sort of “street justice” such a heinous crime deserves.
“The law doesn’t let me do to you what I’d like,” he said, handing down the sentence of 407 months in prison. “That’s about 407 months longer than you ought to be drawing breath.”
Witnesses, including Dietz, told investigators Jefferson broke down her apartment door in the middle of the night and shot her multiple times in front of their 7-year-old daughter. The girl and the pair’s other two children, ages 4 and 8, were at the apartment, but were not harmed during the attack.
Grays Harbor Prosecutor Stew Menefee told the court Jefferson relentlessly pursued Dietz after she moved to Aberdeen with the children to escape him. Menefee said he tracked down her address, found a handgun and then tricked a friend into renting a U-Haul van so he could drive down to her Arthur Street apartment in the early morning hours of May 3.
“Charles Jefferson is one of the most determined and calculated murderers I’ve ever had to deal with,” he said.
Menefee said Jefferson broke down the door of the apartment and confronted Dietz with the pistol. Menefee said she tried to run past Jefferson to the next apartment, in an effort to lead him away from their children.
Jefferson opened fire as she ran past, Menefee said, firing at least eight shots with five of those bulelts striking her in the head and upper body as she lie in front of the neighbor’s doorway.
“Several of those shots were fired at her after she was down,” he said.
Jefferson then fled in the rented U-Haul box van and was quickly captured in Central Park after he abandoned the van and hid in the woods. Menefee said Jefferson had not shown any previous signs of remorse since his arrest, even telling a TV news crew he did not regret his actions.
“Rebbecca Dietz was not just a victim,” Menefee said. “She was a friend. She was a mother. She was a daughter.”
The prosecutor also told the court investigators had found a large amount of marijuana in Jefferson’s home and evidence he had been dealing drugs. Menefee asked for the maximum sentence.
Jefferson’s attorney, Scott Campbell, did not offer any comment during today’s hearing. He previously said Jefferson pleaded guilty to avoid putting his children through a difficult trial.
Before the sentence was ordered, Dietz’s father Richard Dietz and others submitted letters trying to define the how much the world lost with Rebbecca’s death. They wrote of how her children struggled without her and how her daughter remained haunted by the memories of her father killing her mother.
“My whole family will struggle through all of this for a lifetime,” Richard Dietz wrote. “I miss my little baby girl so very, very much and would like to see her killer Charles Jefferson spend the rest of his life in prison.”
Family and friends said an account remains open to collect donations for the children as they prepare to start school. Donations can be made to the Rebbecca Dietz Fund at local Anchor Bank branches.
Richard Dietz stepped before the court today to read a letter from his sister, Rebbecca’s aunt, describing the “horrific night of terror” and asking for the maximum possible prison sentence.
“Words alone cannot express the magnitude of the loss,” he read, adding. “We can’t get her back ever. She won’t see her beautiful children grow up. … No one on earth will ever be touched again by her many kindnesses, except in our hearts.”
