EVERETT, Wash. — Prison inmate Byron Scherf heard himself admit he deserved to die after killing Jayme Biendl.
Scherf is on trial, accused of strangling the corrections officer at the Monroe Correctional Complex two years ago.
He was interviewed a few days after the slaying. On Wednesday, jurors heard that recorded confession for the first time.
"I strangled her to death on January 29 at approximately 8:40 p.m.," Scherf said on the recording. "At first, I was just thinking about beating her up and then it just kept escalating, and I just, it became, 'You know what? I'll just kill her.’”
Scherf said Biendl made a rude comment about his wife. He said his anger turned to rage and that rage turned into a plan to get her alone in the prison chapel and strangle her.
"It was just like that was the straw that broke the camel's back. Years and years of just crap and I got tired of it. And boom,” Scherf said in the recorded interview.
As they listened in the courtroom, Biendl’s friends fought tears as Scherf said Biendl struggled and begged for her life.
"Her eyes just got big as silver dollars and … and then I was on top of her,” said Scherf.
Scherf confessed to try to avoid the death penalty, but he told detectives the punishment would fit the crime.
"The Bible says if you take a life, you give a life. That's all I can say,” said Scherf.
"And you're OK with that?" asked a detective.
"Yeah, I'm OK with that. She didn't deserve to die,” said Scherf.
KIRO
