Kip Lynch's dark hair has grown longer since June, when a jury convicted him of killing his wife and infant daughter. The former soldier now has bangs, and at the start of his sentencing hearing Thursday, he wore black, thick-rimmed glasses, further concealing damage from a bullet prosecutors say he fired through his own head.
Lynch, now 22 and blind in one eye, is ready to hear his fate, said his mother, Terri. He faces 40 to 198 years behind bars, with Superior Court Judge Michael Spaan set to deliver the sentence this afternoon. A state prosecutor is asking for a sentence of 109 years.
"He's just accepted it," Terri Lynch said. "He's still a soldier."
It was April 26, 2010. Two military police officers -- trying to figure out why Lynch hadn't reported for duty, let into the South Anchorage apartment by the landlord -- discovered blood smeared throughout the home and the bodies of Lynch's wife, 19-year-old Racquell, and daughter, 8-month-old Kyirsta. Then there was Lynch, unconscious and badly injured from the failed suicide attempt.
"The defendant took the lives of his family in the kitchen, amidst the groceries that his wife had returned home with, before she even had time to unpack them into the freezer," according to the state's sentencing memorandum.
It was about two months after Lynch, at the time a member of the 4th Airborne Brigade Combat Team, returned home to Anchorage from a yearlong deployment in Afghanistan. The murder weapon: a .45-caliber pistol engraved to commemorate the unit's overseas service, police said.
The Army says Lynch received an "other-than-honorable" discharge in December.
Just after the deployment ended, a brief Army evaluation indicated Lynch may have suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and depression, said Seattle psychologist Fred Wise, who testified Thursday at the request of Lynch's lawyer. Lynch was referred to counseling but neither he nor the Army followed up on it, Wise said.
A quarter of all servicemen and women sent to fight overseas come home with the disorder, Wise said. A soldier suffering from the disorder can react violently to things like cars backfiring, Wise said. And it can be difficult to treat, he said.
But prosecutors argue post- traumatic stress disorder is mere speculation in Lynch's case and say the shooting was not the result of a momentarily loss of control.
"The evidence shows signs of preparation, plan and intent," the sentencing memorandum says. "The firearm had to be removed from its case downstairs, the magazine had to be secured in the handle, the slide had to be racked ... and he had to climb the stairs to confront his wife."
Prosecutor Gustaf Olson handed Wise pictures of the crime scene and the autopsies of Lynch's dead wife and baby.
"Tell us what kind of person would shoot his own wife and child, not merely murder them, but stand over them and empty the magazine into their skull, four additional rounds?" Olson asked.
It was a domestic violence murder, which have unique motives, Wise said. There were unconfirmed reports that Racquell had threatened to leave Lynch and that he had been drinking: Empty beer bottles were found in the home.
"There is just a firestorm of rage, and for a short period of time, there's an inability to modulate," Wise said.
Wise testified that it's possible Lynch doesn't remember the shooting, as he claimed in interviews with detectives. Evaluations by another psychologist, who testified for the prosecution at the trial, indicated Lynch was lying about his memory loss. Wise performed his own memory tests, which included evaluations for "malingering," he said.
"He essentially did fine on most of the tests, and within expectation, given what happened to him," Wise said. There was no indication Lynch was deceiving the psychologists, Wise said.
The doctor said there are at least two likely reasons why Lynch might not remember the shooting: His brain is damaged or he's repressing the memory.
"That's a part of his brain where, he's not going there," Wise said. "Because you don't remember doesn't mean that you're lying."
Wise was asked about the risk of Lynch committing further violent acts. Among other things, the once-vivacious man had become far more "flat" since the self-inflicted gunshot wound, much like a lobotomy patient, Wise said.
"He's got a lot of factors that argue against increased risk. He's got one factor that argues for increased risk, and that's the fact that he killed his wife and daughter," Wise said.
Lynch's lawyer, Dan Lowery, asked if Lynch's father's suicide when Lynch was just 3 or 4 could have caused lasting trauma, something that might result in impulse-control problems far in the future.
Probably not, Wise said.
What about the time, Lowery asked, when Lynch was in high school and was briefly held in a psychiatric ward for suicidal thoughts?
"His mom said he came home drunk with a bunch of his friends, and he was being belligerent, and she called the cops. The cops came out, and she didn't want to have him arrested, so the option was taking him to a mental health facility to put him on a 72-hour hold," Wise said. Lynch was released after about 36 hours, Wise said.
Of all the risk factors brought up by Olson, the prosecutor, which would indicate possible violence problems for Lynch in the future? Lowery wanted to know.
"He has one. He's been convicted of killing two people," Wise said.
Reach Casey Grove at casey.grove@adn.com or 257-4589.
By CASEY GROVE
Anchorage Daily News