Ulysses Handy

Case record: Ulysses Handy

Background

Ulysses Handy III was 24 when he walked into court and entered pleas regarding the killings of Darren Christian, Daniel Varo, and Lindy Cochran. He also pleaded guilty to related offences at the same time.

Handy described himself as having been a Boy Scout and an altar boy. In court and later interviews, he said he was angry with Darren Christian, referred to as D.C., over what he called a betrayal. Handy also spoke about feeling loneliness and misunderstanding as a child, and said his violent behavior developed as he grew up.

Handy later described feeling no compassion for the victims’ families. He said he was asking for no sympathy because he did not have any.

The offence

Handy shot and killed Darren Christian, Daniel Varo, and Lindy Cochran execution-style in a Tacoma house on February 7th. The killings involved all three victims being shot, with Handy describing the sequence during interviews.

Handy said he went to the small house near the University of Puget Sound campus knowing he was there to kill his friends. He told interviewers that when the moment came, he returned, talked to Darren Christian a little more, kissed him, and then “that was it.”

Handy described the shooting moment as follows:

“Dan (Varo) turned around, looked at me, looked at D.C., shot him in the neck, shot him in the head. Lin (Lindy Cochran) got up, looked at me, shot her too.”

Handy said when asked what he was thinking at that moment:

“Nothing. Nothing at all.”

Handy also told interviewers he murdered Cochran and Varo after shooting Christian because they were witnesses.

Court documents said that Handy and three others stole a safe containing cash from the victims’ home before shooting the victims. Prosecutors said the motive was robbery, but they also said the killings were not the result of a robbery gone bad, and that detectives believed the murders were planned from the beginning. A prosecutor described the killings as “A drug ripoff and execution-style killing,” and Deputy Prosecutor Jerry Costello said the motive was robbery while the killings were planned.

In addition to the triple murder, Handy pleaded guilty to a robbery at the house.

Investigation

Detectives believed that the murders were planned from the beginning.

Arrest

Handy was arrested and pleaded guilty.

Trial

Handy pleaded guilty in exchange for prosecutors agreeing not to seek the death penalty.

Handy entered guilty pleas to three counts of aggravated first-degree murder.

Handy spoke to the judge at sentencing and was described as often smiling and smirking while acknowledging his role in the murders. When addressing the court, he said:

“Guilty as charged,”

and he said:

“I'm not taking this deal to escape the death penalty,”

He also told the court:

“I'm going to prison. It's like sending a wildcat back to the jungle.”

Handy said he would have liked to get the death penalty and blamed his previous trips through the criminal justice system for the way he turned out in life. He told the court:

“I'm not asking nobody for sympathy or pity or mercy. I know there's people up in here hurting,”

and also:

“Pain's a part of life. Deal with it. Get over it.”

At sentencing, Judge Frank Cuthbertson addressed the victims’ families and said:

“I don't know if you can feel that justice is fully done. But I hope that you will feel comforted that Mr. Handy will be in prison for the rest of his life and not be able to cause any more harm to any more citizens in this community.”

Sentencing

Handy was sentenced to life in prison in August 2006.

Handy’s plea agreement provided that he could not be paroled. Prosecutors said that by pleading guilty he avoided death row.

The sentencing outcome was described as life in prison without any possibility of release. The sentencing judge gave Handy only one sentence: life in prison without any possibility of release.

During sentencing and statements to the court, Handy also said he was not asking for sympathy because he did not have any, and repeated:

“I feel there's two types of people in this world – us and them, predators and prey,”

and also:

“I know there's people up in here hurt. Well, pain's a part of life, deal with it, get over it.”

He told KIRO 7 that he had no regrets about committing murder.

In a jailhouse interview, Handy described what he said to the families and said:

“The truth? I don't bite my tongue. Anybody got a problem with what I do, anybody got a problem with what I say, they can (expletive). If I'm going to hell, I'll see a lot of people there.”

In the same interview context, Handy was asked about kissing Darren Christian and responded:

“Uh-huh.”

and he was asked:

“And then?”

to which he responded:

“That was it.”

Appeals

No appeals were stated.

Outcome

Handy was sentenced to life in prison in August 2006 for three counts of aggravated first-degree murder.

The court records and later reporting also indicated that prosecutors dismissed a child molestation charge against Handy that had accused him of giving a young girl herpes, and dismissed charges against Handy’s fiancée for first-degree rendering criminal assistance.

Three other alleged conspirators were still charged in the murders and were awaiting trial.

Deputies detained two men after the hearing for threatening victims’ families.

Aftermath

Handy’s mother, Toshika Barnes, apologized outside court and spoke to the victims’ families. She said:

“I'm sorry, and there's nothing I can do to take it back,”

and:

“There's no way I can describe the pain I'm feeling to know that my son could do something like that.”

She later said:

“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.”

Outside court, Barnes also said:

“I feel your pain, but there's no way I can describe the pain I'm feeling to know that my son can do something like that,”

and:

“He's my son and I love him unconditionally, but do not think that's the child I raised, he is not like that. He's not, he's not. And I'm sorry, I just can't stop apologizing.”

Victims’ families addressed the judge and spoke about what Handy had done. Richard Frost brought pictures of his niece, Lindy Cochran, and said:

“She was only 21-year-old,”

and:

“My family won't ever recover from this. Mr. Handy shot her in the head while she pleaded for her life.”

Frost also said:

“I hope that somebody on the inside will get their hands on him and choke the life out of him.”

Chris Jones, Christian’s brother, said:

“Nobody can put into words what he's taken from the families,”

and:

“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.”

Varo’s mother Debra Martsching said:

“I think that there's something that he's lacking, a soul,”

and:

“I don't have room in my life and my heart for someone like him,”

and:

“she knows that goodness prevails, and that there are only a few evil people in the world.”

Lindy Cochran’s great-uncle Richard Frost said:

“Part of the thing that is 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.”

Robert Frost said:

“But I wish I had the opportunity to trip the gallows that would stretch his sorry neck. And part of the thing that is going to keep me going the rest of my life is that somebody will get their hands on him on the inside and choke the life out of him. For the coward that he is. Go ahead and laugh about it, you chicken****,”

Outside the courtroom, deputies detained two men after the hearing for threatening victims’ families following exchanged words. Reporting also said Handy’s friends exchanged words with victim family members.

Handy was later identified as being called “Moonie” by his friends.

Other details

Handy’s alleged co-conspirators were identified as Sirree Muhammad, 18, who provided the gun, and Darryl Pierce, who served as a lookout. Pierce’s girlfriend, Ronee Gutierrez, was alleged to have driven the men to Christian’s home the night of the murders and police said she helped dispose of a safe that was stolen from the home.

Handy pleaded guilty to an unrelated first-degree assault for shooting a man in the stomach on Oct. 21, and 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.

Prosecutors also dismissed charges against Handy’s fiancée for first-degree rendering criminal assistance.

In a jailhouse interview, Handy discussed his lack of remorse and profanity-filled responses. In that interview he said:

“No. I didn't want to (expletive) be this way. But, can't have everything we want.”

Handy described his time in prison for hitting a man over the head with a baseball bat, and said prison took away love, compassion, mercy, or sympathy. He said:

“I went into prison a kid,” and: “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 commentary about his afterlife beliefs, Handy’s statements included:

“Look, man, like I said before, if I was gonna be sorry for what I was gonna do, I wouldn't have did it in the first place.”

He also said:

“If I go to hell, then so be it. Then so be it.”

Handy’s jailhouse tattoos were described as including a pentagram, the word “sadistic,” and the number 666 on his chest, with devil horns above his eyes.