Kennewick killer will never get out of prison. Judge says it isn’t long enough

A 37-year-old will serve the rest of his life in prison after brutally beating and strangling his pregnant girlfriend in a Kennewick apartment and then dumping her body in the river.

While Judge Joe Burrowes on Monday sentenced Richard Jacobson to life without the possibility of parole, he added that if any case called for a longer term, this was that case.

“The court finds that the offenses were not only premeditated and intentional, but carried out with a level of cruelty that shocks the conscience of a normal human,” Burrowes said.

Jacobson said nothing during the hearing.

A jury took just 45 minutes on June 18 to find Jacobson guilty of aggravated first-degree murder for killing 34-year-old Brandy Ebanez. Their decision followed six days of testimony from 28 witnesses.

Under Washington state law, that crime carries a mandatory life sentence without parole.

“It is imposed not only as punishment, but also as a measure of deterrence and a statement of the law’s commitment to protecting the vulnerable,” Burrowes said. “While this sentence is statutorily driven ... if there was more that the court could give, this case is that case.”

Ebanez, who was four or five months pregnant at the time of the murder, was the target of years of abuse from Jacobson, Deputy Prosecutor Julie Long said during the Monday morning hearing.

Her mother tried to get her to leave the man, but Ebanez said she loved him.

“She just refused to leave him despite the no-contact order and the ongoing abuse,” Long said. “That love for this defendant ended up being fatal for her.”

He had recently been released from jail on accusations of violating the no-contact order when he moved back in with her and her two daughters in their Kennewick apartment. In September 2022, an argument turned violent, and Jacobson beat and strangled her.

He hid her body under the bed in their bedroom, while he bought plastic bags, cleaning supplies, a hand truck and two landscaping bricks. He sunk her weighted body into the Columbia River but it was spotted by an off-duty Kennewick police officer who was fishing at the time.

On Monday, prosecutors also asked the judge to issue a lifelong no-contact order to stop Jacobson from contacting his two daughters. The girls were in the apartment when their mother was killed and face a lifetime of trauma, said Long.

Jacobson will still be responsible for nearly $11,000 in restitution for their counseling bills.

The couple’s oldest daughter, who was 12 at the time of the murder, told interviewers that she saw Jacobson hit her mother at least 100 times.

“He would punch her and slap her and pull her hair and spit on her,” Long said. The daughter ended up having to care for her sister during those attacks.

“It obviously has a lifetime impact on both of the girls. They’re without their mother and they know this happened while they were in the house,” Long said. “You heard the oldest daughter talk about how she has to live with that decision, and that’s too much of a burden to carry for that young girl. She was only 12-years-old. It wasn’t her responsibility to try to take care of her mother.”

Defense Attorney Michael Vander Sys presented Jacobson’s notice to appeal the verdict.

He argued that Jacobson should not be banned forever from contacting his daughters. He noted that alternate possibilities needed to be considered because of the protections that parents have under the state constitution.

Burrowes approved the lifetime no-contact order, and said Jacobson’s daughters can decide if they want contact with him someday.

This story was originally published July 7, 2025 at 6:32 PM.