Haidhuru

I’m speechless. Really, and truly speechless for once.

Murderer tells victims’ families to ‘get over it’
KAREN HUCKS; The News Tribune
Published: September 20th, 2006 02:50 PM

Ulysses Handy III walked into court smirking Wednesday morning, and remained smug as he proclaimed himself “guilty as charged” of three aggravated first-degree murder and two assaults.

He smiled. He laughed as victim’s families said they hoped he’d be killed in prison. He told the families, “Pain is part of life. Deal with it, get over it.”


Handy, 24, took advantage of a plea deal Wednesday that let him escape a potential death sentence. Prosecutor Gerry Horne said he wouldn’t seek Handy’s death if he admitted killing Darren Christian, Daniel Varo and Lindy Cochran in a Feb. 7 robbery in a central Tacoma bungalow.

That left only one sentence Pierce County Superior Court Judge Frank Cuthbertson could give Handy – life in prison without any possibility of release.

Handy told Cuthbertson that he wasn’t asking for any sympathy anyway, because he didn’t have any himself.

“I feel there’s two types of people in this world – us and them, predators and prey,” Handy said. “I’m damn sure not prey.”

Cochran’s, Varo’s and Christian’s relatives tearfully tried to describe to the judge what Handy had done to them.

“Part of the thing that’s going to keep me going the rest of my life is that somebody on the inside is going to get their hands on him and choke the life out of him,” Cochran’s great-uncle Richard Frost said. Handy laughed.

“Nobody can put into words what he’s taken from the families,” Christian’s brother, Chris Jones, said. “He can smile about it, and that’s fine, but everything comes full circle. And in one way or another he’ll have to answer to this, other than in this courtroom.”

The packed second-floor court erupted in cheers, as people yelled things at Handy and then his friends yelled back at them. The judge threatened to make people leave. Deputies detained two men after the hearing for threatening victims’ families.

Varo’s mother, Debra Martsching, said she knows that goodness prevails, and that there are only a few evil people in the world.

“I don’t have room in my life and my heart for someone like him,” she said.

Handy, whose friends call him Moonie, knew Varo, 22, and Christian, 28. Cochran, 21, just happened to be staying at the house at the time. Charging papers say early Feb. 7, Handy drove to the house with three friends, but went in and killed Varo, Christian and Cochran by himself, as others stood guard.

Handy, who said pain had been the only constant in his life, only hinted in court about why he’d killed the three.

“I know why I did what I did,” he said. “It wasn’t over no money. It wasn’t over a jacket. And it ain’t no secret who or what I am. I never covered that up, never tried to…. I shoot people, kill people, all that other good stuff, only when I’m provoked. Vengeance, karma, whatever you want to call it. People cross me, I did what I did. And that’s not going to change.”

Handy blamed his inability to feel anything on the eight years he spent in prison for hitting a man over the head with a baseball bat.

“I went into prison a kid,” Handy said. “Whatever love or compassion or mercy or sympathy I had, prison took that away from me. Anything I was died a long time ago.”

In addition to the Feb. 7 murders, Handy pleaded guilty to a robbery at the house. He also pleaded guilty to an unrelated first-degree assault for shooting a man in the stomach on Oct. 21; another first-degree assault for shooting a man who beeped his car horn at him on Jan. 8, and unlawfully possessing guns.

Prosecutors dismissed a child molestation charge in which Handy was accused of giving a young girl Herpes. They also dismissed charges against Handy’s fiancee for first-degree rendering criminal assistance. Three other people are still charged in the murders.

Cuthbertson told him, “The only thing I have to say is that I know the community– even if you don’t — regrets the pain your acts have caused.”

Outside court, Handy’s mother Toshika Barnes, begged the victims’ families for forgiveness.

She said Handy had been raised Catholic with good schooling.

“I’m so sorry,” she sobbed, hugging Martsching. “Please accepted my apology. He was not raised that way … I just pray that the Lord will touch his soul because this apology should come from him.”