GUILTY WA - Tariq, 56, Sultana, 56, & Basma Rafay, 20, murdered, Bellevue, 13 July 1994

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The state Supreme Court on Thursday announced a two-year suspension for a lawyer caught having jailhouse sex with a triple-murder defendant she was representing.
Theresa Olson's suspension begins Friday; she must undergo a psychological evaluation before she can be reinstated.

Earlier, Olson and the state Bar Association had agreed to a one-year suspension, but the high court rejected the bar's recommendation.

In 2002, guards outside a King County Jail conference room saw Olson with her dress pulled up and her client, Sebastian Burns, standing behind her with his pants down. At the time of the encounter, Olson was 43 and married; Burns was 26.


http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/news/bizarre/040805_APsn_lawyer.html
 
I saw this case again on tv today, and was intrigued enough to do some follow-up. The two Canadian 18 years old boys, Atif Rafay and Sebastian Burns, were committed to life in prison without parole for the mid 1990's killing of the family of Atif Rafay. The family was killed to collect insurance money and the house to finance the film they wanted to make, which was about murdering people as well. Rafay's family had lived in B.C. and then moved to Washington state and lived there for 8 years. After the murders the boys did not attend the funeral, and took a Greyhound bus back across the border.

Apparently there is an appeal to be heard this month.

What is unusual about the case is that the boys gave a confession to undercover cops in B.C., Canada, and were extradited after a six year battle to the state of Washington where that confession, which would not have been allowed in the States (it's entrapment), was allowed in by the judge in their trial in the States.

The affluent family of Sebastian Burns is saying that the boys would never have been convicted without that confession. They believe the confession was coerced out of fear, and was a false confession. As well, they state that Atif would have been making enough money in a few years to finance their film because he was attending an Ivy League university and was a brilliant person. His family wasn't as wealthy as Sebastian's family, so why didn't they then kill Sebastian's family instead? Sebastian Burns' sister, Tiffany, a former newscaster, has put together a documentary about the confession, and the way in which it was obtained, and her documentary has been getting a lot of play in Canada and other countries:
http://www.timescolonist.com/entertainment/Victoria+Film+Festival+boosts+careers/4181266/story.html?cid=megadrop_story
http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/columnists/story.html?id=c64d3b35-869b-4049-8b1f-5939c51032ea

Broadcasters in Washington state apparently won't air it because it doesn't show the other evidence submitted at trial. According to Burns' supporters there was no forensic evidence linking the two to the crime. Burns' family believes he and Atif are innocent and that a political Muslim group killed the family in retaliation for some political influence Atif's father wielded.

The tv show I saw showed the boys confessing to the undercover cops, and they didn't look fearful to me. Atif even laughed when talking about how Sebastian killed his autistic sister. Footage showed Atif laughing and giggling when asked by reporters about the murders. As soon as the boys got the insurance money they were quick to buy a fancy car and other expensive items. They also seemed to go to extremes to concoct their alibi. They made sure they were noticed at a movie theater by acting obnoxiously. As well, when at a restaurant they tipped eight dollars on a five dollar bill. The jury determined that if they left the movie theater right after the start, they had enough time to do the murders. Sebastian had been a lead role in a play called "The Rope" which was about a boy killing his family.

Here are some links about the case itself:

http://www.seattlepi.com/default/article/Rafay-Burns-are-convicted-of-murder-1145787.php#page-2

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Burns
 
It could take six months to find out if Rafay and Burns will get a new trial.
Seems like all they've got in the appeal was just the recorded sting operation with a false confession defence, and a perhaps ill-chosen comparison made by the prosecutor. There didn't seem to be any new exculpatory evidence presented. Even if the recorded confession and the inflammatory statement were removed from the record it seems that the prosecution still believes that these boys will stay in prison permanently.

But prosecutors said it all comes down to overwhelming evidence pointing to Burns and Rafay

"As the saying goes, you can't make this stuff up," said prosecutor Deborah Dwyer.

http://www.king5.com/news/cities/bellevue/Confessions-questioned-in-1994-Bellevue-murder-appeal-125251324.html
 
I just stumbled across this case today. It is absolutely shocking.

A perfect example of a narcissistic psychopath if ever I've seen one. The two convicted perps were both utterly uncaring about the deceased. And, while it is most shocking that the "son", Atif, showed little to no remorse about killing his family, his partner in crime, and the dominant personality, Sebastian Burns, is incredibly scary.

Burns' family is defending him, saying that they are innocent, but I think he is a master manipulator and is a puppeteer behind the scenes.

Burns had absolutely no remorse after smashing in the heads of his friend's mother, father and autistic sister with a baseball bat. Both he and Atif didn't even attend the family funeral. Instead they hopped on a bus across the border back to Canada. The went to a Canadian memorial, but, when approached by media, they ran, jumped in a car and giggled as they drove off.

Two teenagers, gloating in their superior intelligence and happily spending the insurance/estate money after. :banghead:



http://www.cbsnews.com/news/perfectly-executed/

[video=youtube;t7D9OouYTzE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7D9OouYTzE"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7D9OouYTzE[/video]
 
The original National Post article isn't still online, however it was quoted in detail on an innocence blog....

Mr. Burns felt stunned. "When did all this happen?" he sputtered. Two days ago, Ms. Isaacs sobbed in reply.

"Why am I only learning of this now?" thought Mr. Burns. "Where are the boys? Where is my son?"

Bellevue police had received a 911 call from Sebastian Burns, at two in the morning. The first officers arrived at the Rafay house minutes later.

After speaking to them at the murder scene, Bellevue detectives had isolated Burns and Rafay. They put them up in a filthy Bellevue motel room that police described as the worst dive in the area. The room lacked even a telephone. Burns and Rafay had none of their belongings with them. They had no money.

Are you telling me they didn't still have their wallets? They managed to pay for a Greyhound, so why couldn't they pay for a collect phone booth call? Who said that the room didn't have a phone? Was it the accused?

Why didn't Burns contact his parents after experiencing the supposedly worst and traumatic experience that anyone could experience?


Right away, she says, "all their friends just converged on this house. There were kids all over the house, talking, smoking. They were giggling, acting silly, like 12-year-olds." Her husband, meanwhile, was "losing it every day."

While they "skipped" the funeral service for Atif's family (hey, they only stumbled across their bludgeoned bodies!) they headed to the memorial service in Canada and ran away giggling when media tried to question them. And then, according to Sebastian's mother, they were giggling with their friends when they arrived back in Vancouver, because they simply didn't understand the circumstances.

Who in the world wouldn't understand the circumstances after finding the family/best friend's family bludgeoned to death??? These weren't 12 year olds.

And now several "innocence projects" are trying to get them exhonerated??

They never shed a tear. They never seemed concerned. This is absolutely mind-boggling!!

An intelligent, erudite man, Mr. Burns is a retired engineer and venture capitalist. He is also an amateur actor -- not the warm and fuzzy kind. "I've always felt that hugging someone is slightly bogus," he tells me.

A native of England, he moved to Canada to attend the University of Alberta. He loves West Vancouver, but is wary of most people. He does not trust police. His home has been bugged, his conversations have been monitored.

Sounds like a perfectly normal parent, doesn't he?? :notgood:
 
Having watched the Confession Tapes it makes me wonder if the opinions written here would still stay the same.

Gesendet von meinem SM-G950F mit Tapatalk
 
Resurrecting this board again, now that I have watched THE CONFESSION TAPES on Netflix. At the very least I think the jury should have found reasonable doubt. I am not totally convinced that the boys did it but I do believe they were involved. Regardless, the defense presented enough evidence to make me question their guilt so I am surprised that the jury found them guilty. Okay, maybe not THAT surprised. After all, the one juror seemed to have the hots for "Mr. Big."
 
Just watched confession tapes. This case was the only one in the series that I thought - nope, what they are presenting here is not quite right. There's much more to this.
So dug a bit deeper and watched the two other documentaries and read some court papers on the case (obviously not the doco made by sister, talk about not being objective). Worth watching both.

The thing about the Netflix documentary is that it already has an angle - 'people can and do give false confessions when they are actually innocent'. Which is an interesting subject, but I did not think this case was represented objectively, probably because they want their case subjects to appear innocent or the whole premise of the documentary doesn't work.
 
I just saw this on "Confession tapes" and never heard about this case before.
Thought they are 100% GUILTY from the moment they played the 911 tape .....I do believe there was someone else with them however because of the blood evidence. I wonder if the DNA of the third guy who was given immunity was ever tested. Since that sting operation is not legal (and shouldn't be) in the US I think it should have been thrown out as evidence but I believe they would have still been convicted. I would have liked to hear from the actual FBI agent who supposedly gave the names of people in that terrorist organization and supposedly saw the bat. I wonder if that was actually Sebastian or someone acting on his behalf .I wouldn't put it past him. If this was actually an act of Muslim extremism wouldn't have all the bodies ,not just the mom's face east and they wouldn't they have made it known it was them ? IMO
 
Like others, came across the story on Confession Tapes. While I do question the legality of the confessions, I'm not sure I buy the "hit" angle. A baseball bat seems an odd choice for that, as does the time of day. 9:30 seems awfully early if you're hoping people would be asleep. I don't give much credence to mom facing east. Why just mom and not the other two? And it didn't appear that she had been moved in order to face a certain direction.

And, while I hate to presume how someone should react, the behavior of both boys seems off. I know shock can make you do/say strange things...but I don't know.... They seemed very concerned with making sure they were remembered while out and about. Why on earth did Sebastian not call his parents after 911? IIRC, dad found out a few days later when someone else called the house. A lot of inconsistencies, oddities and coincidences. Also, for being good, upstanding citizens, they sure seemed to fall in with what they assumed to be the criminal element pretty easily.
 
I'm kind of shocked that most people seem to believe their guilt. It reminds me of all the time I spent looking into the Meredith Kercher case - I feel like Sebastian, like Amanda, has a personality that people are put off by which does not help his case. All of the reasons that people give for guilt seem to be more about gut feeling and behaviour rather than hard evidence.
 
Their effort at an alibi is definitely suspect. I'd like to know if the chain of events of that evening were the norm for these 2. If it was unusual that's a huge red flag.

What I couldn't stop thinking about was these college aged guys hanging out as bffs and having sleepovers etc. Opens the possibly of them being physically involved with eachother. After the murders they moved in together, seen together multiple times acting quite absurdly really (a whole other red flag)... Is it possible the mother or father witnessed them together? Jimmy Miyoshi testified that he knew about their plan before it happened. If this is true, then money and freedom appears to be the most plausible motive.

Also, Atif didn't even check on his sister. Why would he admit this? If they did this crime, it may be that they thought she was dead. When it turned out she wasn't ,did Atif make something up on the fly? Why would they wait outside (so close to the house) if there was a possible imminent danger on their life? Again leaving his sister inside the home unprotected. I have read that he hated her. Didn't mention her in his statement to the judge. Yikes.


If Burns was staying at the Rafay home he would obviously leave dna in the shower. There's no way to know when that occured. And then I also think for these 2 to commit a murder and leave no substantial hard dna or even footprint evidence is a just shy of a miracle if the weapon was a bat ...


I just recently watched the netflix show, and this case has been on my mind. I plan to read the official documents to get a fuller understanding and maybe get some answers
 
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Truthpursuit said: And then I also think for these 2 to commit a murder and leave no substantial hard dna or even footprint evidence is a just shy of a miracle if the weapon was a bat ...

Was there footprint evidence at all? Not that I've read. Then it would be no less a miracle for anyone else as it would be for these two.
Was there any hard dna evidence pointing to someone else? If not, then another miracle for the ghost killers.
 
It's easy to believe Jimmy Miyoshi as he was such a reluctant witness. He lived with Sebastian and Atif afterward as well. He's the one friend of both boys who would know the entire story.
 
It's easy to believe Jimmy Miyoshi as he was such a reluctant witness. He lived with Sebastian and Atif afterward as well. He's the one friend of both boys who would know the entire story.
Love your Siamese Cat avatar, Calimar. Big fan of them. Had one named Foo who lived to be 19 yrs old.

Also, totally agree that Jimmy Miyoshi alone is one of the most damning pieces of evidence against these 2 despicable, remorseless, arrogant killers.
 

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