A man arrested in 2023 for murdering a couple in their Thurston County home was sentenced Thursday to life in prison without parole.
A jury convicted Timothy Burke, 47, last month of two counts of aggravated first-degree murder while armed with a firearm, as well as two counts of second-degree murder while armed with a firearm.
He was convicted for murdering Dr. Karen A. Koep and her husband, Davido, who legally has no surname, in their Thurston County home in November 2023.
The conviction came at the end of a trial that spanned several weeks.
Burke has been in custody at the Thurston County Jail on a no-bail hold since his Nov. 17, 2023 arrest. He will be transferred to a state facility to serve out his sentence.
Thurston County Superior Court Judge John Skinder delivered Burke’s sentence Thursday morning after hearing sentencing requests from the prosecution and the defense.
The prosecution asked for Burke to receive the sentence mandated by state law for his crimes: life in prison without the possibility of parole
The defense, after unsuccessfully arguing at trial that Burke was innocent by reason of insanity, asked for Skinder to make an exception for Burke and allow him the possibility of parole due to his mental state at the time the crimes were committed.
Skinder did not grant that exception.
In addition to hearing from the involved attorneys, Skinder heard statements from the victims’ family and friends about the impact Burke’s crimes and the court case have had on them.
“The statements provided by friends and family during the hearing described Karen and Davido's ability to bring light, kindness, and joy to the lives of those who knew them,” the Thurston County Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement released Thursday afternoon.
“Despite the circumstances of their deaths, their legacy of love, generosity, and adventure will continue on. While no verdict or sentence can erase the profound loss experienced by everyone they touched, we hope today's outcome provides a measure of accountability and honors their memory.”
The Thurston County Prosecutor’s Office thanked the jurors in this case “for their time, attention, and commitment throughout this lengthy trial. Their careful consideration of the evidence and thoughtful deliberation were essential to achieving a just verdict.”
The Thurston County Prosecutor’s Office also thanked the Thurston County Sheriff’s Office and all others who worked on this investigation, saying their “dedicated and thorough investigative work made this outcome possible.”
Burke was arrested on suspicion of murder seven days after the couple was reported missing on Nov. 10, 2023.
Burke was a tenant of Davido’s at the time of the murder, with detectives uncovering evidence suggesting that Davido intended to evict Burke and that Burke viewed Davido negatively.
According to information from court documents that was first released by The Olympian, Burke was in a state of mental crisis around the time of the murders, having lost his daughter to a fentanyl overdose weeks prior.
Burke’s defense attorney described him as holding “numerous non-reality-based beliefs about Davido at the time of the shootings, including the belief that Davido was a threat to his living daughter.”
Two neighbors reported hearing gunshots near the couple’s Lake Forest home between Long Lake and Marvin Road around 8 to 9 p.m. on either Nov. 10 or 11, 2023.
Surveillance footage from two separate credit unions reportedly shows a man, presumably Burke, using Davido’s credit cards on Nov. 12.
Deputies visited Koep and Davido’s home for a welfare check on Nov. 13, 2023, and found significant amounts of blood and other evidence suggesting an act of violence and an attempt to clean it up.
In police reports that were cited in charging documents, law enforcement personnel present for the welfare check noted that “they believed the quantity of blood in the house was in an amount beyond what a human could survive.”
Detectives did not find bodies in the home at the time of the welfare check.
Koep and Davido’s bodies were later found off Stedman Road Southeast at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in early December 2023.
While investigating the couple’s disappearance in November, investigators recovered Koep’s missing vehicle and another vehicle belonging to Burke, both of which contained blood.
Burke’s vehicle also contained human hair and mixed .45-caliber bullets, fired shell casings and a fired bullet that Burke had most likely taken from the couple’s home.
Burke was arrested on an unrelated identity theft charge on Nov. 14, 2023, but was released due to a lack of probable cause for the murder case.
He was arrested again on Nov. 17 after investigators determined that Burke’s firearm, which he had on him when arrested a few days prior, had fired the casings found in his vehicle.
Burke was found hiding from law enforcement on the side of a trail, according to court documents.
