The Russel Douglas Murder: Huden, Thomas, and Brenna Douglas

The Russel Douglas murder was carried out by Jim Huden, a Florida guitarist who shot the 32-year-old Renton man once in the forehead on December 26, 2003, in a remote driveway on Whidbey Island. Huden is serving 80 years in Washington state prison. Peggy Sue Thomas, a former Ms. Washington who helped lure Douglas to the location, pleaded guilty to a lesser charge and served four years. Douglas’s estranged wife, Brenna, whom prosecutors and multiple witnesses described as the person who wanted him dead, was never charged.

What Happened on Wahl Road

Douglas was visiting Whidbey Island over the 2003 holidays. He was lured to a dead-end road near Freeland under the pretense of picking up a Christmas gift for Brenna. A man walking his dog found Douglas’s yellow Chevrolet Geo Tracker around 4 p.m. on December 27, the passenger door open, Douglas slumped in the driver’s seat still wearing his seatbelt. He had been shot once at close range with a .380-caliber handgun.¹

Inside the Tracker, investigators recovered a single .380 shell casing, shattered sunglasses, and bloody grip marks on the steering wheel. The manual transmission was in reverse with the parking brake set. When detectives contacted Brenna Douglas at her Langley home that evening, she appeared calm and did not ask how or where her husband had died, according to the officers who spoke with her.¹ Russel and Brenna were separated at the time and co-operated a Whidbey Island hair salon called Just B’s.

How the Case Broke

For seven months there were no solid leads. The break came from Florida. William “Bill” Hill, a bass player in a band called Buck Naked and the X-hibitionists, called the Island County Sheriff’s Office anonymously in the summer of 2004 to ask whether they had an unsolved murder. Hill was the best friend and former groomsman of the band’s guitarist, Jim Huden. About a month after the killing, driving between gigs, Huden had told Hill he shot a man on Whidbey Island. Huden framed it as revenge against someone he considered an abuser, saying the victim “fit the M.O.” of his own violent stepfather.²

Hill sat on it for months. What finally moved him was a lunch in 2004 when he complained about his boss and Huden asked if he wanted the man “taken care of,” saying he had done it once and could do it again.² On August 5, 2004, Hill gave a tape-recorded statement to Detectives Mark Plumberg and Mike Beech at his home in Port Charlotte, Florida. He told them Huden claimed Peggy Sue Thomas and Brenna Douglas had plotted the murder and brought him in to carry it out, with the motive being a life insurance payout.³

On August 18, 2004, the sheriff’s office publicly named Huden and Thomas as persons of interest. The next day, the murder weapon appeared. Keith Ogden, an acquaintance of Huden and Thomas, turned over a two-tone Bersa Thunder .380 pistol to authorities in Doña Ana County, New Mexico. Huden had given him the gun for safekeeping. Washington State Patrol ballistics testing later confirmed that the bullet recovered from Douglas’s head had been fired from that weapon.⁴ A fingerprint belonging to Peggy Sue Thomas was found on the pistol’s instruction manual.¹

Jim Huden: Fugitive, Convicted, 80 Years

By the time Island County charged Huden with first-degree murder in May 2005 and a judge issued a $1 million warrant, he was gone. He had crossed into Mexico on September 10, 2004, and settled in Veracruz, where he lived under the name “Maestro Jim” and gave guitar lessons.⁵⁶

His own wife led investigators to him. Jean Huden was arrested in Florida on March 29, 2011, on 18 felony charges including forging checks and grand theft. She struck a deal with the Florida State Attorney’s Office and began cooperating in the Douglas case. She told detectives that both her husband and Peggy Sue Thomas had confessed to her that they planned and carried out the murder, and she admitted transferring money to Huden and visiting him in Mexico while he was in hiding. She gave up his location in Veracruz.⁷

Mexican authorities arrested Huden on June 9, 2011. He had no record of legal entry and had been living illegally in the country for nearly seven years. He was returned to Island County to face trial.⁵

Trial began July 10, 2012, before Judge Vickie I. Churchill, with Island County Prosecutor Greg Banks leading the case. Hill’s testimony was the centerpiece. He recounted Huden’s confession and told the jury Huden expected to be paid $50,000 from Douglas’s life insurance for committing the killing. Banks later said he could have rested after Hill finished.³ The state also presented the Bersa ballistics match, a partial DNA profile from the weapon that was a possible match for Huden, his fingerprints on the gun manual, Ogden’s testimony that he had taught Huden to fire the gun, and evidence of Huden’s flight. Prosecutors charged first-degree premeditated murder with the aggravating factor that Douglas was “particularly vulnerable” because he was belted into his car with no chance to escape.⁴

The defense offered an alibi witness who said he had lunch with Huden on December 26, 2003, and challenged the state’s claim that Douglas was shot while belted in. Huden’s attorney, Craig Platt, told the court Huden had once said he “wanted to kill someone just to see what it felt like,” framing the killing as impulsive rather than for hire.⁸

On July 20, 2012, the jury found Huden guilty of first-degree murder and affirmed the vulnerability finding. On August 21, 2012, Judge Churchill imposed an exceptional sentence of 960 months, or 80 years. Huden was 55; the judge said the term effectively guaranteed he would die in prison.⁹ He is not eligible for parole until 2085.¹⁰ The Washington Court of Appeals, Division One, affirmed his conviction and sentence in an unpublished opinion on February 3, 2014.¹¹

Peggy Sue Thomas: Plea to a Reduced Charge

Thomas brought an unusual profile to the case. A Navy veteran who had served as an aircraft mechanic during Operation Desert Storm, she won the Ms. Washington pageant in 2000 and by 2003 was working as a limousine driver in Las Vegas. She had worked with Brenna Douglas at Just B’s.³

Prosecutors alleged Thomas was the person who lured Douglas to Wahl Road on the pretext of delivering a birthday gift for Brenna. She was arrested exiting her houseboat in Navajo Dam, New Mexico, on July 9, 2011, and charged with first-degree murder. She posted a $500,000 bail bond in September 2011 and pleaded not guilty.¹

One week before her trial was set to begin in January 2013, Thomas took a plea deal. She pleaded guilty to the reduced charge of rendering criminal assistance in the first degree, admitting she helped Huden after the murder. On February 15, 2013, she was sentenced to four years.¹² At sentencing she told the Douglas family, “I’m not the woman that’s been portrayed in the papers over the last few years. I would want to tell Russell Douglas and his family that I am so sorry for their loss.” She maintained she was not involved in the killing itself and said she accepted the deal because she did not believe she could get a fair trial in a small island community.³

Thomas served her time at the Washington Corrections Center for Women and was released in August 2016. Under the plea agreement, she cannot be charged with murder in the Douglas case, even if new evidence emerges.¹³

Brenna Douglas: Suspected, Never Charged

Brenna Douglas is the unresolved piece of the case. She stood to benefit financially from her husband’s death, and multiple witnesses described her as a co-conspirator, yet prosecutors never brought charges against her.

About a week after the murder, Brenna filed a claim on a $600,000 life insurance policy on Russel’s life. She initially told investigators the marriage was failing, then changed her account and said they were working things out. She was evasive with insurance investigators, refused to release medical records, and retained a lawyer. Detective Plumberg found a significant spike in phone contact between Brenna and Peggy Sue Thomas around the killing: 46 calls in the month before, dropping to 11 in the month after.¹

Bill Hill told investigators Huden said Thomas and Brenna had “plotted the murder” together and brought Huden in to carry it out. Jean Huden gave a similar account. A former friend of Thomas, Vicky Boyer, testified she heard Thomas joke in a bar about “taking care of” a problem for a friend.³ Investigators reported that on a visit to Las Vegas months before the killing, Brenna told Thomas that Russel was “worth more to me dead than alive.”¹³

What prosecutors could not do was establish a direct financial link between Brenna and the shooter. No evidence surfaced that money changed hands. Brenna denied any role, telling the court, “I am in no way responsible for the death of my husband.” In 2004, Prosecutor Greg Banks labeled her an accomplice, triggering Washington’s slayer statute and temporarily blocking her insurance payout. She challenged the designation and in 2005 was paid $200,000 plus interest by AIG. As of 2014, Banks said publicly: “She remains a suspect in my mind. To this day.”¹³

Where Each Person Stands Today

Jim Huden is incarcerated at the Washington State Penitentiary. His parole date is 2085; he was 55 at sentencing.¹³ Bill Hill, whose testimony sealed Huden’s conviction, died in October 2014.³ Peggy Sue Thomas has been free since August 2016 and is protected by her plea agreement from any future murder charge in the case. Brenna Douglas was never prosecuted, and no public record indicates charges are coming. Who ordered Russel Douglas killed, and whether anyone besides Huden did the ordering, remains a matter of public dispute.

1
South Whidbey Record. Marked for Death: A South Whidbey Record Report on the Douglas Murder Investigation
2
Whidbey News-Times. Former Friends Share Details in Douglas Murder Trial
3
CBS News. Peggy Sue Thomas: How Did a Former Ms. Washington End Up at the Heart of a Murder Case
4
Washington State Courts. State v. Huden, Appellant’s Brief
5
Everett Herald. Man Arrested in Mexico in 2003 Whidbey Island Killing
6
CBS News. Tracing a Fugitive Killer’s Footsteps in Mexico
7
Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Key Witness in Douglas Murder Has Criminal Past
8
Whidbey News-Times. Beauty Queen Gets Four Years for Her Role in 2003 Whidbey Murder
9
South Whidbey Record. After 9 Years, Justice Served as Huden Gets 80 Years
10
CBS News. The Russel Douglas Murder Investigation
11
Washington State Courts. State v. Huden, Unpublished Opinion
12
ABC News. Former Ms. Washington Sentenced in Murder Case
13
Oxygen. Where Are Peggy Sue Thomas and Jim Huden Now