Family looks forward to end of lengthy Kent murder court case

Fifteen agonizing years since the arrest of a man for the brutal murder of her son Seth Frankel, a father of two young girls, city of Kent employee and Auburn resident, Emily Frankel Markiewicz can finally experience the case coming to an end.

It appeared the conclusion had come in 2014 when a King County Superior Court jury convicted William L. Phillip Jr. of first-degree murder and a judge sentenced him to 25 years in prison for the fatal stabbing of Frankel, 41, on May 21, 2010 in his Auburn home in a rage of jealousy over a woman each man had loved.

But that June 27, 2014 day in court turned out to be only the start of what seemed to be an everlasting murder case of endless appeals and hearings.

“It’s cruel and unusual punishment for the victims,” Frankel Markiewicz said during an Oct. 30 phone interview about the 15 years of court proceedings.

A Washington Court of Appeals ruling in 2017 reversed Phillip’s conviction. The Court found that warrants obtained by the state in 2010 and 2012 to collect his cellphone data lacked probable cause and ordered a new trial. Over the next eight years, however, continual appeals and rulings postponed a trial date.

“Between 2017 and 2023, the parties litigated a number of legal issues, which involved two more appeals,” according to an Oct. 29 email from Douglas Wagoner, spokesperson for King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office. “The matter was finally returned back to the trial court in early 2024. Between January of 2024 and September of 2025, the parties litigated several additional issues before the trial court.”

It wasn’t until the state agreed to reduce the first-degree murder charge to second-degree murder that Phillip pleaded guilty Sept. 16.

If the schedule holds, Frankel Markiewicz will return Dec. 19 to a Kent courtroom at the Maleng Regional Justice Center to hear a judge sentence Phillip again for the murder of her son.

If not for the guilty plea, Frankel Markiewicz and the rest of Frankel’s family and friends would have had to gone through a third trial. A first trial in 2013 resulted in a mistrial when the jury couldn’t agree on a verdict.

“You go back to court and see the pictures (of the murder) again, and you go back to court and see the pictures again, it was never ending,” Frankel Markiewicz said. “I don’t want to see those pictures again.”

Without wanting to go through another trial, it made sense to the family when the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office proposed an agreement with defense attorneys to seek a guilty plea from Phillip for a lesser charge.

“That’s why we went with plea deal, we didn’t want to go back to court,” Frankel Markiewicz said. “It was too grueling on all of us.”

In his guilty plea statement, Phillip wrote:

“On May 21, 2010 in King County, I acted with the intent to cause the death of another person, and did cause the death of Seth Frankel, a human being, who died on or about May 21, 2010,” Phillip wrote. “I traveled to Seth Frankel’s home, intentionally assaulted him, and did cause his death.”

Frankel Markiewicz attended the sentencing hearing when Phillip read his statement.

“He never said a thing during both of the trials,” she said. “To hear him say I killed Seth Frankel was horrible, but it was wonderful to have him say I did it after 15 years of sitting there in jail.”

With the lesser charge, Phillip, 45, will face a sentencing range of 10 years and three months to 18 years and four months, according to the Prosecuting Attorney’s Office. Because Phillip has been in custody since his 2010 arrest in Oregon, he will receive credit for time served of about 15 years and seven months at the time of sentencing.

“This is not a discretionary call on the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office part; defendants are legally entitled to receive credit for time served on any case they are booked on,” Wagoner said.

A judge will ultimately determine the sentence length, but the state prosecutors and defense attorneys agreed to a recommended sentence of 220 months, which is 18 years and four months.

“The plea is for three and a half more years,” Frankel Markiewicz said. “The judge might sentence him to more which would be thrilling. …but it will not make up for our loss.”

The Kent Reporter reached out to a defense attorney for Phillip for comment about the case, but did not hear back.

Family impact

In addition to Frankel’s mother, his former wife Christine Frankel-Barton and their daughter Maile Frankel also agreed to talk to the Kent Reporter about the case that’s dragged on for 15 years.

“It’s been a very long road,” Frankel-Barton said during an Oct. 30 phone interview. “Many people assumed it was done and it’s not. Nothing brings him back, but it’d be nice not to have this constantly part of what we think about when we think about Seth.”

Frankel-Barton attended numerous hearings, and even planned family vacations around court dates.

“With our justice system set up there’s constant continuances and appeals,” she said. “If you don’t live it you have no idea how long it can go on for.”

The back-and-forth appeals eventually led the state Court of Appeals to rule in 2023 that a new 2020 warrant by the state for the same evidence that had been tossed out because it had been learned from Phillips’ cellphone records was valid because facts were learned independently from the cellphone records.

Prosecutors Wyman Yip and Patrick Hinds told the jury in 2014 that Phillip drove from his home in Oregon to Auburn to stab Frankel to death in his Auburn home because both were in love with Bonny Johnson and Phillip wanted her back. Johnson tipped off detectives to investigate Phillip.

Auburn Police used cellphone records and DNA evidence found on a bloody towel to tie Phillip to the killing of Frankel.

Richard Frankel, the father of Seth Frankel, kept a close watch on the case but died in 2022 at the age of 81.

“I’m sorry my ex husband wasn’t alive to see the end,” Frankel Markiewicz said.

Frankel-Barton’s glad she won’t have to hear about more delays in the case.

“I’m appreciative we will not be facing another appeal,” Frankel-Barton said. “It feels like it was appeal after this after that. …at what point does this no longer happen?”

Maile Frankel was just 4 years old when her dad died. She’s 19 now. She grew up with the ongoing case.

“It’s kind of been my whole life,” she said during an Oct. 30 phone interview. “I don’t remember much of life without the trial being there. It’s been kind of a constant. …it’s been very tough for a long time.”

Frankel-Barton said he tried to keep Maile and her oldest daughter Abigail Frankel, now 23, as insulated from the case as possible, opening up to them more as they got older.

“We’ve been moving forward as much as possible,” Frankel-Barton said. “We think about Seth on good days and do not acknowledge the day he died. We think about him on Thanksgiving, which was his favorite holiday with friends and family being together and lots of football. We also acknowledge his birthday and holidays, including Hanukkah and Passover.”

For her daughters and herself, Frankel-Barton attempted as much as possible to focus on positive aspects of Seth Frankel and keep the everlasting case in the background.

“We spend energy on him and who he was and not this negative aspect,” she said. “I don’t want him to be remembered (for the killing).”

Maile Frankel appreciated how her mother handled things.

“I feel very protected from the process and I’ve never been to any of the hearings,” she said. “I’ve had the opportunity but I was never forced.”

Too young to remember much about her father, Maile Frankel enjoys learning about him from her mother and other relatives.

“I’ve only been told good things,” she said when asked what she’s discovered.”He was very funny, very kind and everybody loved him. He always had a song in his head. I don’t have those memories but I’ve heard countless stories from my family.”

Seth Frankel worked as a videographer for the city of Kent at the time of his death. In addition to shooting video at city events, Frankel edited tapes, helped write scripts and sometimes even narrated programs.

At the 2014 sentencing hearing for Phillip, Frankel-Barton spoke to the judge about the impact of Seth Frankel’s death on their two girls.

“More than anything he loved his children,” said Frankel-Barton to Judge Andrea Darvas before she sentenced Phillip, according to a Kent Reporter article. “His girls were the most important pieces of his life. He took joy in their individuality and their wonder.”

Frankel-Barton gathered her girls from another room at the Maleng Regional Justice Center after the sentencing. They were the focus of her comments to the judge.

“The hardest thing I’ve ever done is to tell the girls that their dad died,” she said.

Frankel-Barton will attend the scheduled December sentencing hearing for Phillip. Maile Frankel said if she’s in town from college she plans to go or if she’s away, she might be able to attend via Zoom.

Mother and daughter each look forward to the end of this lengthy case.

“It’ll be nice not having something come up or being pushed back,” Maile Frankel said about the numerous court hearings.

Her mother agreed.

“I know he (Phillip) will get out at some point, but the number of appeals and hearings. …that just needs to be done so we can have a period of time not even thinking about that,” Frankel-Barton said. “We spent a lot of time to be positive in life living ways Seth would have wanted us to. But having that door closed would be immensely relieving to all of us.

“It doesn’t bring Seth back. It doesn’t really make it better. But it lets us focus on better things.”