April 6, 1990, Seattle Times, Man Supposedly Killed In Jonestown Gets 20 Years For Attempted Slaying, by Julie Emery,

April 6, 1990, Seattle Times, Man Supposedly Killed In Jonestown Gets 20 Years For Attempted Slaying, by Julie Emery, 

A Renton man who used a false identity for years to avoid criminal charges in Alabama yesterday was sentenced to 20 years in prison for trying to kill a Bellevue man near Tiger Mountain.

No mention was made of Jerry Bibb Balisok's lengthy charade as Rick A. Wetta when King County Superior Court Judge Lloyd Bever imposed the exceptional sentence for the crime of attempted first-degree murder.

Bever said the longer-than-usual punishment was justified because when Balisok opened fire on 22-year-old Emmett Thompson Sept. 5 he was attempting to remove a potential witness in a case involving the torching of a hotel in Wenatchee.

Wetta was indicted by a federal grand jury in Yakima for his alleged involvement in the 1988 arson of an abandoned hotel to collect insurance.

The judge yesterday said there were substantial and compelling reasons to go beyond the standard range of 11 to 15 years.

Deputy Prosecutor Michael Hogan had asked for 30 years for Balisok because of the seriousness of attempting to do away with a witness.

Thompson was a former business partner of Balisok who found religion and sought to remove himself from what authorities said was the plan to share millions in insurance.

The shooting occurred when the two were finishing target practice.

Defense attorney Anne Engelhard argued that the injuries to Thompson were not severe and that there was no elaborate premeditation to dispose of a body.

Engelhard said that if Balisok were planning a cover-up he could have shot and killed Thompson earlier when the two were deep in the woods near Issaquah.

Balisok's mother had thought her son and his wife died in the Jonestown Massacre in Guyana in 1978. The mother had placed on the son's tombstone in the family plot in Huntsville the words, "Damn the State Department."

The inscription reflected her unsuccessful attempt to gain government clearance on the supposed death of Balisok in order to collect life insurance, authorities believed.

Balisok went throughout the trial under the names of Wetta and John Doe. His true identity came to light through the persistence of King County Detective Randy Mullinax, who would not give up efforts to find out more about the mystery man.

Mullinax finally learned that Balisok, 34, was really a former motorcycle-shop owner who fled Alabama after being indicted in that state in 1978 on 13 counts of forgery.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Donald Kresse, in Yakima, said he will confer with King County authorities and other federal officials to determine whether the charges of conspiracy to commit arson will go forward.