LONGVIEW — A man convicted of first-degree murder for killing a 7-year-old Longview girl 30 years ago was resentenced Monday in Cowlitz County to 33 years to life, making him eligible for release in three years.
This is the third sentence Timothy Edward Haag has received since he was first convicted as an adult at the age of 17 for choking and drowning Rachel Dillard in a bathtub July 9, 1994, in Longview.
He was previously resentenced to 44 years in prison in 2018 after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2012 that for youth, life sentences without parole are unconstitutional.
In 2021, the Washington State Supreme Court ruled his second sentence didn’t account for the ways Haag had improved while in prison and ordered him to be resentenced again.
The victim’s family believes Haag is still a threat.
Alex Steven Anderson, 46, of Springfield, Ore., is Rachel’s brother.
“Tim will be released in less than three years,” he said. “I now have to work on a campaign to alert whatever town he is released to.”
The 47-year-old murderer shuffled into a Hall of Justice courtroom Monday in Kelso after traveling from the Stafford Creek Corrections facility in Aberdeen.
“I admit I did this crime,” Haag said to Cowlitz County Superior Court Judge Michael Evans. “I killed Rachel.”
Court records show Haag used his own hands and a belt to strangle her.
When police arrived at the crime scene, Haag was lying on a bed, attempting to prevent them from searching the area. After removing him, officers discovered the victim’s nude body with her ankles bound by strings and her face covered with plastic.
In the resentencing brief, prosecutors argue Haag fits the category of juvenile offenders who “cannot be rehabilitated,” in part because Haag admitted to police as a teen that he feared he might commit murder again.
Haag’s attorney, Jeffrey E. Ellis of the Portland Law Office of Alsept & Ellis, said judges need not excuse the crimes committed by young offenders, but look at their accountability and growth.
Ellis asked for a sentence of 30 years to life, emphasizing that a parole board would also be required to OK Haag’s release before he would ever walk free.
“We are faced with crimes with life-changing, devastating impacts that are committed by young people,” he said. “And we have the unique opportunity to both punish and change.”
Resentencing
Jake Lervold, Cowlitz County deputy prosecuting attorney, said the 2012 U.S. Supreme Court ruling requires lower courts to evaluate the mitigating qualities when resentencing youth previously sentenced to life.
And although Haag struggled with his sexual identity and bullying at the time of the crime, he was viewed as an intelligent 17-year-old. Haag didn’t commit the petty crimes of a teen but the murder of a child, Lervold said.
He asked the court to impose a 60-year prison sentence.
The Washington State Supreme Court overturned Haag’s 2018 resentencing, also made by Evans, because officials say the judge “clearly misapplied the law.” The ruling states Evans placed too much emphasis on retributive factors rather than mitigation factors in determining the new sentence. The court also declared Haag’s sentence unconstitutional, as it amounted to a “de facto life sentence.”
The mitigating factors Evans should have considered include Haag’s difficult childhood, growing up in poverty, being bullied in school and feeling isolated as a gay teen in a small town, according to the ruling. The court also notes Haag’s progress while in prison, such as obtaining his high school diploma and becoming a Jehovah’s Witness.
Evans said Monday the 2021 ruling by the Washington State Supreme Court made it “pretty clear that I was too retributive” and that he didn’t give enough consideration to Haag’s age at the time of the crime.
Evans said judges make mistakes and he owns his.
“No trial judge likes to be reversed, essentially by the Supreme Court,” he said. “You want to get it right the first time.”
Family impact
Three members of the Dillard family sat in different rows behind prosecutors Monday, and didn’t speak to each other.
Anderson, also a former friend of the defendant, told The Daily News his sister trusted Haag, who used that trust to lure Rachel into the house to kill her.
“I befriended and trusted the wrong person. I left Rachel and my younger siblings alone and unprotected,” he said.
Judith Dillard, the victim’s mother, drove from Nebraska to Kelso for the hearing. She said the hearing’s date coincided with the anniversary of her daughter’s funeral, three decades prior.
“Rachel would be celebrating her 38th birthday this year, but she will forever be 7 in my heart,” she said.
Josh Dillard, another brother who was not in the courtroom, provided a written statement that encapsulated the impact on the Dillard family since the murder.
“This senseless act has left a gaping hole in our family,” he writes. “It wasn’t just (Rachel) who vanished. It felt like the joy left with (her), tearing a gaping hole in our family … laughter (was) replaced by heavy silence.”
Susan Dillard, Rachel’s oldest sister, said in court that Rachel’s life was stolen.
“Timothy Haag’s actions were deliberate, cruel and devoid of remorse,” she said.
After Evans’ sentencing, which she called disappointing, she looked toward the judge’s bench as she exited the courtroom.
“You spit on her grave.”
