Willie Kwan Fai Mak, when he was 21, and two other accomplices entered the Wah Mee Social Club in Settle's Chinatown and killed thirteen people. He was sentenced to death in 1983.
Mak's death sentence was overturned in 1991 in U.S. District Court by Judge William Dwyer for lack of adequate legal counsel at sentencing. On May 20, King County Superior Court Judge Laura Inveen sentenced him to 13 consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole. Mr. Wak is now 41. Mak's defense by King County public defenders has cost about $400,000 over 19 years, said Jim Crane, Office of Public Defense administrator. The legal wrangling could continue until Mak dies in prison -- an old man serving 13 life sentences, as reported in Seattle Times (May 21, 2002).