LONGVIEW, Wash. (KOIN) — The crime shocked Longview and the region.
In 1994, Timothy Haag brutally killed his 7-year-old neighbor, Rachel Dillard, by luring her into his bedroom. He bound her hands and feet, taped a bag over her head and put her under his bed, where police found her partially clothed just hours after she disappeared from her own backyard.
The prosecutor at the time, Doug Boole, said Haag — who was 17 at the time of the crime — would be tried as an adult.
In January 1995, Haag was sentenced to life in prison without parole. Haag said he strangeld the girl to get back at his neighbors who, he said, treated Rachel’s older brother Alex Anderson unfairly.
Haag later admitted he was in love with Anderson.
But in 2012, the US Supreme Court — in the Miller v Alabama case — ruled mandatory life-without=parole sentences for juvenile offenders was unconstitutional.
Because of that ruling, Haag was in a Cowlitz County court on Friday to be re-sentenced.
A psychologist testifed for the defense Friday that the murder was a one-time psychotic break and that Haag has matured during his 23 years in prison. It was also argued that Haag had nothing but good behavior in prison.
Haag took the stand Friday and said he hates himself for what he did to Rachel and that he’s trying to be a better person. He also apologized to the family.
While no decision was made at this proceeding, the judge said a decision will be handed down at 10 a.m. January 19.
Prosecutors want Haag to receive a 60-year minimum sentence, while his defense attorneys proposed a 25-year minimum. If the judge rules for the defense, Haag — who has been imprisoned since 1995– would be eligible for parole in a relatively short period of time.
Family reaction
The re-sentencing did not sit well with Rachel’s brother, Alex Anderson.
“Today is extremely heartwrenching, emotions are flying. I’m having to see all my worst nightmares at once,” Anderson told KOIN 6 News.
“My parents still hate me and blame me for this, and then I have to see Tim, who laid the blame on me,” he said. “Now I’m hearing in the courtroom that they’re saying, ‘Oh, he has no idea why he did it.'”
Anderson, who was friends with Haag, said he’s has to live with the guilt of his sister’s murder for the rest of his life.
“We weren’t a good family, you know. We weren’t a close family and then I had to leave,” he said. “Then I feel extreme guilt because I talked to Tim and told Tim about my experiences in the house. And then he turned that into a revenge plot and murdered my 7-year-old sister in the most cold-blooded manner possible.”
Rachel, he said, was a “wonderful little girl.” Haag choked her and drowned her in the bathtub, but she was still alive when he hid her under his bed.
“I wanted the death penalty, but they couldn’t give it to him,” Anderson said. He said he believe life in prison without parole meant just that.
But this re-sentencing, he feels, is not justice.
“I don’t think this community or any community would want a child killer released into their community,” Anderson told KOIN 6 News. And if Haag is released — now or at some point — Anderson said he doesn’t feel “it’s going to be safe for him to be free. I don’t feel that anyone is going to rejoice and be happy, other than his mother, that he’s out.”
Anderson said he’s very sorry to everyone — his parents, his family, the “entire community” — and said he still feels deeply guilty.
“I befriended him. I left, I left my brothers and sisters,” he said. “And then this happened.”
The pain of losing his sister lasts forever, he said.
“I think about her everyday. I can’t help but think about it. I see her in my daughter. I see her in every litle child. It will never go away. The pain will never go away. The hurt. And we’re sentenced to a life sentence of this, my family, everyone. We all have to feel this pain forever.”
KOIN 6 News will update this story as developments happen.