Suspect in Tacoma double murder appears before a judge

TACOMA, Wash. — A Tacoma man made his first appearance on murder charges Tuesday at a courtroom that spilled over with anger and despair.

"You're gone," shouted one victim's mother.  She wanted a reckoning.  But Tuesday all she got was a loose apology from the suspect's family.

Aaron Livingston -- a mountain of a man at 6-foot-8 and weighs more than 400 pounds -- towered over the bailiffs as he lumbered into court, a size 7x-8x jail vest strapped around his frame.

Prosecutors say he used all of his brute force in the attack on Friday night.

"He didn't mean to do any of this," his brother said to the victims’ families.

But the probable cause documents made that hard for those people to believe.

Prosecutors say Livingston suspected his live-in girlfriend Julia Wheeler, had been cheating on him with her friend, AJ Geissler. He beat them both Thursday night, putting Geissler in the hospital. Livingston was arrested. Prosecutors determined it would be a misdemeanor charge and Livingston was released.

Hours later, two people were dead.

Probable cause documents paint a terrifying scene.

They say Livingston returned to the home he shared with his girlfriend on South 19th Street Friday evening.

Livingston found Geissler there on the couch.  He went into the backyard, grabbed an axe and hit Geissler several times on the head.

Then he punching Wheeler repeatedly and choked her with a wooden baton until she lost consciousness.

He went into a bedroom where he found another friend, Denyse Marshall.  He beat her with a barbell.

The documents say Livingston then returned to Geissler and slit his throat. Then he did the same to Marshall.  He explained to police that he "left it to God" to decide whether his girlfriend would die.

Livingston called his father to tell him what he'd done. Then he saw police officers nearby on an unrelated called. He approached them and said, "I did something really bad and hurt some people. You need to take me to jail."

Wheeler, the lone survivor, was in tears during his appearance.  Her head was in her hands and she asked repeatedly, "Why?"

She received no answers, just an apology as Livingston was taken out of court.

KIRO