Jim Sanders seemed excited the evening of April 28, 2010.
He and his wife, Charlene, were preparing to go on vacation in a few days, and someone was interested in buying a diamond ring the couple had been trying to sell.
“Someone was going to come by,” Charlene Sanders testified in Pierce County Superior Court on Tuesday. “It was a blessing.”
It soon turned into the worst night of their lives.
The people they thought were potential buyers turned out to be robbers, and, in the end, killers. Jim Sanders, 43, was shot to death during a robbery inside his Edgewood home.
“I was basically ripped out of my home, and my family torn apart, all in minutes,” Charlene Sanders testified.
One of the alleged intruders, Kiyoshi Higashi, 23, is on trial for first-degree murder, robbery, assault and burglary. He is the first of four defendants to go to trial in the case, which drew national attention.
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