Man arrested in Seattle woman's fatal stabbing

[July 25, 2009]  SEATTLE (AP) -- A 23-year-old man with a violent history has been arrested in a brutal attack that killed one woman and injured another as they slept in their home.

Isaiah M.K. Kalebu was taken into custody Friday for questioning and was scheduled to be booked into jail for investigation of murder, said Sgt. Sean Whitcomb.

Police had released a photo of Kalebu on Friday, describing him as their primary suspect and the person shown in a surveillance video they also released. Kalebu was later found with his pit bull in Seattle's Magnuson Park.

Kalebu is suspected in the July 19 murder of Teresa Butz, 39, and the wounding of her partner, a 36-year-old woman, who was injured when they were stabbed by a man who apparently entered through their home in Seattle's South Park neighborhood through a window.

Police did not disclose any details about evidence linking Kalebu to the stabbings.

The Seattle Times said Kalebu was scheduled for trial on domestic violence charges Aug. 6 in King County, accused of threatening to kill his mother while he lived with her in 2008.

Pierce County sheriff's spokesman Ed Troyer said Friday night that Kalebu also had been questioned, but not charged, after a Tacoma-area fire on July 9 that killed two people, including Kalebu's aunt, Rachel Kalebu, 61. The woman had just obtained a domestic violence protection order against him.

Troyer told The Associated Press that the young man was "still under the umbrella of suspicion" and that there were "no other suspects" in the fire.

Court records in the King County case show Kalebu was charged with felony harassment and first-degree malicious mischief. Prosecutors say he threatened to kill his mother after she confronted him in March 2008 for not taking prescribed medication for "bipolar and manic-depressive" conditions, according to court documents.

A state psychologist evaluation in 2008 found he "did not have the capacity to rationally understand" the case against him at that time.

Seattle police have called the South Park stabbings one of the most brutal crimes they've seen. The victims eventually managed to get outside after the attack.

Before she died, Butz talked to a neighbor, Albert Barrientes, saying of the attacker: "He told us if we did what he asked us to do, he wouldn't hurt us. He lied, he lied."

Butz's partner, who has not been identified, was released Monday from Harborview Medical Center.

[Associated Press]

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