Washington Man Charged in Brutal Home Invasion Days After Judge Declined to Jail Him

July 28, 2009— -- If prosecutors had their way, Isaiah Kalebu would have been sitting in a jail cell the night of July 19.

Instead, police say Kalebu crawled inside a Seattle couple's open window before brutalizing two women who later staggered out into the street, bleeding and pleading for help. Both women had been raped and stabbed. One died of her injuries.

The attack came six days after a King County prosecutor went before Superior Court Judge Brian Gain to ask that Kalebu be returned to jail after being released on his own recognizance in August 2008. The prosecutors argued that Kalebu, originally charged with felony harrassment of his own mother, had now become a suspect in an arson fire that killed Kalebu's aunt and a former NFL quarterback.

Gain denied the request and Kalebu remained free.

Gain was also the judge who had allowed Kalebu released with no bail in August 2008 after he was charged with threatening to kill his mother. At the time, prosecutors had requested his bail be put at $25,000.

Kalebu is now back in jail on investigation of murder, rape, attempted murder and burglary. A different judge set his bail this time at $10 million.

The July 19 attack on the two women, Teresa Butz and her longtime partner, became known as the South Park murder, after the neighborhood where they lived.

According to a police report, neighbors on South Rose Street were awakened shortly after 3 a.m. by the terrified pleading of Butz and her partner, who had just escaped from their home.

Butz told neighbor Albert Barrientes before dying, "He told us if we did what he asked us to do, he wouldn't hurt us. He lied, he lied," according to the Associated Press.

Fingerprints left at the scene and DNA from bodily fluids in the women's house later identified the suspect as Kalebu. He was arrested five days after the attack.

"My family is forgiving this man," Teresa Butz's brother, Tim Butz, told KOMO. "But make no mistake, we believe in justice. We believe in swift justice. We believe in harsh justice. This man is going to be forgiven, but justice is coming."

Kalebu's court-appointed attorney Phillip Tavel said his client is next due in court Wednesday where he expects prosecutors to file formal charges. Tavel said Kalebu will plead not guilty.

Tavel had argued for a lowered bail of $50,000 to $100,000 when Kalebu was arraigned, but wasn't surprised his request was turned down.

"I knew going [because of] the severity of the charges ... that they were going to set bail as high as possible," Tavel told ABCNews.com

The King County prosecting attorney's office declined to comment on Gain's refusal to jail Kalebu before the South Park attack. Seattle police also declined to comment on anything beyond Kalebu's arrest. A police department spokesman said it was not department policy to comment on judgments or actions of outside agencies.

But prosecuting attorney's office spokesman Dan Donahoe said his office's request to lock up Kalebu was based on his known mental instability and the role investigators think he may have played in the July 9 fire that killed his aunt, Rachel Kalebu, 61, and former NFL quarterback John Eddie Jones, 57.

Gain could not be reached for comment.

Close-Knit Family Struggles With Violence

Dr. Barbara Semakula, Rachel Kalebu's niece and Isaiah Kalebu's cousin, told ABCNews.com that the family -- many of whom fled Idi Amin's war-torn Uganda in the 1970s -- were devastated, not only by the death of the woman they called "Mama Ray" but the attack on Butz and her partner.

That attack came one day before Rachel Kalebu's funeral.

Semakula described Kalebu as a "restless" boy when he was younger whose childhood troubles grew into a string of run-ins with the law as an adult.

Rachel Kalebu, whose youngest brother is Isaiah Kalebu's father, was among the first of 12 children to flee Amin's torturous Uganda. After they settled in the United States and began families of their own, Semakula said "Mama Ray" took to helping raise her dozens of nieces and nephews following the death of her only child at age 3.

"She was like a mother to all of us," Semakula said. "My aunt was very outgoing, very kind, very loving."

Yet she, too, became afraid of Kalebu as did his own mother. Rachel Kalebu died the day after taking out an order of protection against her nephew.

Pierce County Sheriff's Office, which is investigating the fire, did not have enough evidence to charge Kalebu in the days before the murder and rapes in Seattle, according to spokesman Ed Troyer.

"Unfortunately, with arson, it takes time for the actual tests to mature," he told ABCNews.com, referring to evidence labs tests that have not yet come back. "We have a lot of evidence in that case."

Troyer said Isaiah Kalebu was well known to authorities in Pierce County, having been arrrested before, including for smashing out his mother's car windows.

"She's afraid of him," Troyer said.

And yet, when police tried to confront Kalebu, Troyer said, his family became very protective, urging him not to speak to police and telling them he wasn't mentally capable of being interviewed.

Kalebu Allegedly Told Mother 'You're Going to Die'

The felony harrassment charge against his mother came in August 2008 after he threatened to kill her, according to court documents.

In documents filed in King County relating to the harrassment charge, Denise Kalebu became concerned for her safety and the safety of her two younger children in March 2008 when Isaiah Kalebu refused to take the medication that had been prescribed to control his mental illness.

As tensions escalated, Kalebu allegedly told his mother, "Enjoy your last day on Earth," and "You're going to die."

It was two days later when, according to court documents, Kalebu allegedly assaulted his mother with a dog chain and was arrested for smashing her car.

Bail was set at $25,000, but Gain later reduced the bail to personal recognizance and Kalebu was released from jail.

Now his family and those of his alleged victims are left to mourn those who died.

Semakula said that while most of the family was able to attend her aunt's funeral, a second service was held the same day in Uganda.

As for Kalebu, Tavel said he's doing OK in jail. Despite his mental illness and past run-ins with the law, his lawyer described him as "calm and collected" and a "really, bright, sharp kid."