TACOMA, Wash. — Accused killer Tyler Savage is the only person who can back up his claim that a developmentally disabled 16-year-old girl asked him to play a dangerous sex game that ended in her death.
So Savage, 21, had to take the witness stand and tell his story to a jury.
Savage claims Kimberly Daily had a crush on him, and that after she made a date on Facebook to meet with him near their homes in Puyallup's South Hill, Daily told him she was interested in him.
“She asked me if I wanted to have sex,” Savage testified.
Daily was strangled on August 17, 2010. Her naked body was found several days later with her bra and T-shirt knotted around her throat.
After Pierce County Sheriff’s detectives focused on Savage, then 18, he confessed, saying he grabbed Daily and choked her when she tried to leave as the two sat talking in a wooded area near their homes.
In a tape-recorded confession, Savage said he killed Daily because he thought it was “lame” that she wanted to leave.
He said he wrapped the T-shirt and bra around her neck and sexually assaulted her to make it appear as though she had been the victim of a rape and murder.
But after his arrest days later, Savage changed his story, claiming Daily asked him to choke her.
At first, he testified that he was uncomfortable with Daily’s request. “She kept on asking me and saying it was safe and she’d done it before,” he told the jury.
During cross examination, Pierce County Prosecuting Attorney Mark Lindquist focused on what Savage said in 2010 and what he now claims. “Your story is that Kimmy wanted to have sex with you?” Lindquist asked.
“Yes,” Savage replied.
Lindquist followed up, “So you’re saying this 16-year-old developmentally disabled girl, with the capacity of an 11-year-old, wanted to have super-freaky kinky sex with you?”
Savage simply replied, “Yes.”
Lindquist also went over each change in Savage’s story, saying during his testimony that he admitted lying to detectives at least 18 times.
He pointed out that Savage never said anything about choking or sex with the teenager until after he was arrested and charged with her murder.
Lindquist: “Did you tell anyone that Kimmy wanted to have sex with you?”
Savage: “No.”
Lindquist: “Did you tell anyone that Kim wanted you to strangle her?”
Savage: “No.”
Lindquist: "Did you tell anyone that Kimmy died in some kind of sex game?”
Savage: “No.”
After brief testimony from an ex-girlfriend of Savage’s who also knew Daily, his defense team rested its case.
Prosecutors asked the court to call a rebuttal witness to testify about Daily’s mental disabilities, but Judge Linda Lee isn’t expected to rule on that until Thursday.
Wednesday’s session has been postponed due to a family emergency on Savage’s defense team.
The jury is expected to begin deliberations on Monday.
KIRO
