Man charged with robbery, domestic violence from actions that led to Amber Alert

Published 10:45 am Wednesday, May 11, 2016

Police say Anthony Burton assaulted his ex-girlfriend at her home in Auburn on May 1, threatened to kill her, and fled with their 15-month-old daughter.

Four days later police found the child safe and arrested Burton.

Last week, the King County Prosecutor charged Burton, 33, with second-degree robbery, felony harassment-domestic violence, unlawful imprisonment-domestic violence and fourth degree assault-domestic violence.

Asking for bail to stay at $200,000 and for a Superior Court judge to issue orders keeping Burton away from his ex-girlfriend, their child and others, Senior Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Angela Kaake noted that when Burton’s mother first saw police at her front door shortly after the abduction, she became hysterical, fell to a seated position, and said: ” I knew this day would come. He killed them, didn’t he?”

“This is more telling than anything the state could write …” Kaake wrote.

Arraignment is Tuesday, May 17 at the Regional Justice Center in Kent.

Here is a summary of the Auburn Police account.

Jealous and controlling, according to the ex-girlfriend, Burton had threatened many times during their two-year relationship to kill her, their baby daughter and himself.

At 11:40 a.m., May 1, according to police, the woman, Burton and their baby were in the back corner bedroom of the home they shared on Fir Street. While packing his bags, he started to accuse her of cheating on him, backed her into a corner and threatened to get a gun from his car.

The woman told police that throughout the assault, “Anthony threatened to kill her numerous times. Anthony explained to (her) that he was going to kill her with his gun so that he could live with their daughter and not worry about having to deal with her,” that is, with his ex-girlfriend, according to the police account.

According to the police account, “Anthony assured her that if police responded, he would shoot it out with them and then, ‘we’d all be dead.’ ” As she told police, she was sure Burton was going to kill her. At one point, he grabbed the left and right side of her head with his hands and slammed her head backward into the wall.

During the assault, which lasted 20 minutes, police said, Burton continued to pack his bags and at one point appeared to be leaving the house. He then took his ex’s debit card, assuring her that after withdrawing $100, he would destroy the card so she couldn’t use it. When she asked for him to return the card, he returned to the attack.

According to the police account, when Burton saw that the woman’s lip was bruised and bleeding, he stopped, picked up a flat sandal and slapped her on the face and cheeks with it. When she called out for help, he got up to see if their housemate had returned. During this pause in the assault, police say, the woman, bloodied and terrified, convinced Burton was about to make good on his threat, scrambled out her window and bolted to a neighbor’s house. She called 911.

Burton took the baby and drove off.

On Wednesday morning, based on Burton’s suicidal comments, his current and past threats, and because he had broken contact with his family by then, police issued an Amber Alert. Later that same day, Burton told a detective he would leave the baby at his mother’s house in Tukwila.

When police officers arrived at the house to get the child, Burton came out and surrendered.

Burton later offered police his own account of events.

“He denied ever striking (her), preventing her from leaving or threatening to kill her,” his daughter or himself, according to the police account, denied possessing a gun in his vehicle or ever telling anybody he had a gun. Anthony insisted his ex-girlfriend had been the aggressor and that she had even stabbed him in the past, but he declined to press charges against her.

When police asked Burton whether he had ever made statements to his mother about killing himself, he hung his head and “began to cry heavier than he already had been. He said that he had told his mother “he can’t live,” without the baby and would rather be dead,” according to the police account.

Burton’s criminal history includes possession, second-degree theft, residential burglary, theft of rental-leased property, third-degree theft, and making a false statement.