San Jose: Man convicted of thrill-kill murder of Santa Teresa High classmate

SAN JOSE — For seven frustrating years as the case meandered through the courts, Michael Russell’s family repeatedly relived how two teenagers turned from torturing animals to sadistically butchering their 15-year-old relative with a garden-variety chef’s knife.

Monday, the family of Santa Teresa High sophomore Michael Russell sobbed as the protracted legal ordeal to hold his two killers accountable finally began drawing to a close in Santa Clara County Superior Court.

The jury in the retrial of one of the culprits, Randy Thompson, found him guilty Monday of premeditated murder in 2009 when he was 15, and an enhancement, personal use of a deadly weapon.

Thompson, still baby-faced at 22, remained expressionless as the verdict was read. He faces 26 years to life in prison. His accomplice, Jae Williams, who was 16 at the time of Russell’s killing, was tried separately and sentenced two years ago to 26 years to life in prison.

“It’s about time,” said Cathy Russell, one of Michael Russell’s aunts. “But it’s the right outcome and that’s all that counts.”

From the beginning, the case gained notoriety because of how young the accused were and the cold-blooded way they carried out the crime.

Thompson and Williams stabbed Russell nine times and slashed his throat with the chef’s knife they’d stolen from Thompson’s mother’s kitchen. Russell’s bloody body was found by his uncle in the backyard of the family’s house on Comanche Drive on the evening of Nov. 10, 2009, shortly after he been tackled from behind by the two classmates he thought were his friends.

Williams told police that his religion, Satanism, allowed him to kill, adding that he’d already killed a rabbit and a cat. “I guess I just finally wanted to kill somebody,” he told San Jose police detectives two days after the slaying of Russell. “I had my chance and I took it.”

Thompson was “completely obsessed” with killing, prosecutor Carolyn Powell said during this month’s trial. He wrote about killing on his South San Jose bedroom walls, drew cartoons depicting people dying and bragged about the grisly cellphone pictures he carried with him — including one of him grinning while holding a cat with its legs cut off that had been lit on fire.

“But that wasn’t enough” for Thompson, Powell told the jury. “So he and his friend Jae Williams made a plan to kill someone who thought he was a friend.”

Thompson and Williams were both charged with plotting to kill Russell for thrills, and under normal circumstances would have been tried together. It looked like an open-and-shut case: Williams confessed and Thompson admitted he was at the scene. Police also found Michael’s blood on their clothing — and both boys were overheard by classmates discussing their desire to kill.

But the case dragged on. Two separate trials were set because the teenagers had made incriminating statements to police about each other. Thompson was first tried in 2014, but that jury deadlocked, forcing the Russell family to endure a third trial. Williams was convicted in 2014 and is serving 26 years to life in prison.

Thompson’s first jury agreed he was guilty, but deadlocked in 2014 on the question of whether to convict him of first- or second-degree murder, prompting the prosecution to try him again this month.

This time, a different Superior Court judge — Linda R. Clark — allowed the prosecution to introduce grisly photos from Thompson’s cellphone.

“There were disturbing images a person wouldn’t normally see,” one juror said. “It was at times trying.”

The juror said the panel easily agreed to convict Thompson of premeditated murder, but took until Friday afternoon to reach consensus on the personal use of a deadly weapon enhancement. Then they decided to wait until Monday to finalize the verdict, leaving Russell’s mother, Michelle Russell, and other relatives worried they would have to go through a fourth trial.

“We just wanted to be sure,” the juror said Monday, referring to why the panel waited. “This is not something to be taken lightly. It has pretty big implications on a young man’s life.”

Thompson’s mother and sister cried when the verdict was read. On their way out of the courthouse, his father said in an angry tone, “Justice is served, right?” He declined to comment further.

Russell’s relatives face one more legal hurdle before Thompson’s sentencing next year, where they can pour their heart out to the judge about how much Michael meant to them. The family, who emigrated from Belfast, Ireland, to San Jose in 1989, remained extremely close after the next generation, including Michael and his cousins, were born here.

Defense attorneys Chris Givens and Jessica Delgado have asked the judge to revisit the question of whether Thompson should have been tried and sentenced in juvenile court, where he would face a shorter term behind bars, rather than in adult court.

Under Proposition 57, approved overwhelmingly by voters earlier this month, judges, not prosecutors, must decide whether to try juveniles as adults. Prosecutors made the call in the Thompson case.

The District Attorney’s Office contends it is unclear whether the initiative applies to pending cases like Thompson’s. But they are willing to have the judge hear the issue to protect the verdict from being appealed on Proposition 57 grounds. Judge Clark, who is expected to side with the prosecution, set a hearing for Jan. 9.

“I’m not worried about it,” Cathy Russell said. “I know the district attorney made the right call seven years ago.”