South Kitsap resident Amber J. Debord says she still doesn’t know what happened the night she stabbed Michele L. Burton to death after the two women met at a local bar a year ago.
“But what I do know is that I will never be able to forgive myself, and I will live in my own personal hell for the rest of my life,” said Debord, 34, before being sentenced to 18 years in prison Tuesday in Kitsap County Superior Court after pleading guilty to second-degree murder. “I hope her friends and family will take solace in knowing that, and I hope everyone can get closure from this.”
At 2 a.m. on March 13, 2008, a hysterical Debord called 911 from Burton’s home near Panther Lake to report “someone is dead.” When Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office deputies arrived, they found the scene of a “violent struggle” that ended with a severely beaten Burton dead outside and Debord inside holding a knife. Both women were covered in blood.
Hours earlier, the women were seen drinking together at the Bethel Tavern before going to Burton’s house. They were briefly joined there by a third party, but were alone when Burton was killed.
Debord told Judge Anna Laurie Tuesday that she still can’t remember most of that night, and likely never will. After her arrest for murder, she reportedly admitted that she had been sexually interested in Burton that night and she “drank too much alcohol.”
In the packed courtroom, friends and family of Burton fought back tears as they tried to described what it felt like to lose the 36-year-old woman to such a “gruesome, savage and senseless” act.
“(Burton) always had a smile on her face and tried to see the good in people, (but) seeing the good in people caused her to lose her life,” said one friend, while another woman told Judge Laurie that although Burton’s loved ones have “questions that will never be answered (and) scars that will never be erased … we are proud to say we knew her.”
Defense attorney Tom Weaver described Debord as a “good person” who had been “failed and let down by a lot of people.
“From the ages of 6 to 12, she was molested on a near daily basis,” Weaver said, explaining that his client began abusing alcohol as a teenager and later became addicted to prescription medication, injured herself by “cutting” and had attempted suicide numerous times. “If the events that night had not happened, I seriously question whether Ms. Debord would be alive today. Eventually something tragic would have happened.”
Weaver said his client pleaded guilty last week because she did not want to put the victim’s family or her family through a trial, and that she would have pleaded guilty much earlier if he had not advised her against it.
Friends and family members of Debord, including her sister, then spoke, describing the defendant as a woman with “a huge heart” that loved animals, cared deeply for her grandmother and “has shown nothing but remorse for what happened.”
Judge Laurie then spoke, saying it was tragic what had happened to both Burton and Debord.
“Evil was done to (Debord), and she is damaged perhaps beyond rehabilitation,” she said.
She then addressed Michele Burton’s mother, saying she disagreed with the woman’s statement that her daughter may not have had a big impact on the world.
“This is the most crowded my courtroom has ever been,” Laurie said. “Your daughter had an impact on her world.”
To the rest of the courtroom, Laurie said that she saw many negative reactions on people’s faces when Weaver said “what happened may have saved Ms. Debord’s life,” and asked that those who loved Burton try to dispel any bitterness and hatred.
“I suspect Ms. Debord would trade positions with her if she could,” Laurie said. “I ask that you remember the brightness of (Burton’s) life, not the darkness of her death.”
She said she was following the prosecution’s recommendation and sentenced Debord to 220 months — 18.4 years — in prison.
