By Tahlia Ganser and Aaron Burkhalter

MOUNT VERNON — As the dust settles on the largest crime scene in Skagit County’s history, the bills for the tragedy are starting to trickle in.

How many thousands, or possibly millions, of dollars the prosecution of 28-year-old Isaac L. Zamora will cost the county is yet unknown, but hints in the form of cell phone bills and overtime suggest a likely strain on the county’s already tight budget.

“I think folks are realizing that it could cost a lot of money,” said Skagit County Superior Court Presiding Judge Dave Needy, who has been appointed by the county commissioners to oversee costs on the case.

The 20 counts against Zamora include six of aggravated first-degree murder, which by state law requires that he be represented by two attorneys. The law enforcement response to the Sept. 2 killings in and near Alger was massive, and the ensuing investigation has involved scores of police officers.

Multiple homicides are expensive by their nature. A double-murder case in Yakima County last year cost more than $700,000.

The expense of the Zamora case comes at a time when county departments have been asked to cut their budgets by 10 percent, and the county is preparing for a $550,000 shortfall in the 2009 budget.

Although the cost of the investigation is not yet tallied, and the upcoming costs for a trial cannot be predicted, the county is already preparing to seek state reimbursement for an expensive case.

“We will be trying to get any help that we can,” County Commissioner Sharon Dillon said. “From what I’ve heard, it could be millions.”

Needy will evaluate reasonableness of the funding requests by the prosecution and the defense for the trial. He said he has not been given a budget because he does not know what types of requests will be submitted.

The requests to Needy could include expert witnesses, which Prosecutor Rich Weyrich said can cost $1,000 an hour.

It’s premature to predict costs of a trial because it “depends on so many things,” Weyrich said. “I don’t want to take any wild guesses.”

In any case where the death penalty is a possibility, the defendant, by state mandate, must have two attorneys. Keith Tyne, director of the Skagit County Public Defender’s Office and who is one attorney on the case, said the second lawyer will come from outside the county as to not drain the resources here.

Weyrich said he will not hire outside counsel to assist the prosecution.

Meanwhile, the bills since Sept. 2 are already piling up.

The memorial service for the fallen Deputy Anne Jackson will likely cost more than $20,000, said Chief Criminal Deputy Will Reichardt. The county is expected to pay the costs that Burlington-Edison High School incurred for use of the school on a school day, such as extra school-bus routes to accommodate an early release. Other expenses included a sound system, tent and renting McIntyre Hall in Mount Vernon for a reception for law enforcement and victims’ families.

There are unexpected costs, too.

In September, the Sheriff’s Office doubled its cell phone usage, tacking an extra $1,500 on its most recent bill.

The Sheriff’s Office also built up overtime hours in the weeks after the Sept. 2 attacks. Reichardt said the deputy overtime is minimal — he did not have an exact number — because salaried employees worked many of the extra hours instead of those who would receive overtime, and because of the huge assistance from other agencies.

The Snohomish County Multiple Agency Response Team sent more than 100 investigators to Alger to investigate the multiple scenes for days. Those costs are absorbed by the individual agencies that responded, such as the State Patrol Forensic Crime Lab in Seattle, which is processing much of the evidence.

“If you were actually going to tack a dollar number on it, it would be huge,” Reichardt said.

Skagit County Coroner Daniel Dempsey said the case could cost his office an estimated $15,000 to $20,000, depending on how much the Snohomish County Medical Examiner charges for five victim autopsies.

The extra costs include equipment use and $2,200 in overtime, Dempsey said.

He said some of the costs could be reimbursed by the state’s Forensic Investigations Council, which helps fund multiple death investigations.

Some funds are available through the Extraordinary Criminal Justice Costs Act, which partially reimburses counties facing major budget alterations from aggravated murder cases.

The state Office of Public Defense manages the applications, which are ultimately approved or denied by the state Legislature.

For 2007, Yakima, King and Klickitat counties applied for reimbursement, but the Legislature only approved funds to Yakima and Klickitat.

Skagit County officials have confirmed that they will pursue the same funding. They are awaiting the application and have asked all involved departments to keep track of expenses and personnel hours related to the investigation and trial.

Skagit County Budget and Finance Director Trisha Logue said the county will not likely be completely reimbursed and has been turned down for such funding in the past.

The counties that received reimbursement last year showed that the cost had a major impact on their budget.

Yakima County reported spending $737,500 on a double-homicide case, which took up 1.9 percent of the county’s criminal justice budget in 2007. Klickitat reported $501,800 for a case that lasted from 2005 to 2007, which took up 2.23 percent of the county’s criminal justice budget. Yakima County was eventually awarded $141,000, and Klickitat County was awarded $48,000.

Skagit County budgeted for $20.6 million in criminal justice expenses, which include budgeted expenses for the district court, coroner, public defender’s office, prosecutor’s office, the sheriff’s department and superior court. A case costing $412,000 would take up 2 percent of that budget.

County administrators are hesitant to predict or even talk about what the case will cost, deferring questions to Needy.

“It’s going to cost what it’s going to cost, and it’s going to be expensive,” Skagit County Deputy Administrator Tim Holloran said.

Based on the size and severity of the crime and what other counties have faced with similar situations, the financial impact could be large.

Holloran said that’s why it’s important to leave the financial decisions to Needy.

“It’s a set of tragedies; it’s not just one thing,” Holloran said. “That’s why we’ve asked for the money judge ... we don’t want to make any insensitive comments about what it’s going to cost.”