Elderly man’s accused killer on trial this week

Jury selection is expected to begin this week in the trial of a career burglar accused of killing an 80-year-old Spokane Valley man. 

David K. Brewczynski, 44, is charged with first-degree murder and 23 other counts related to four residential burglaries committed around the time Kenneth Cross was found beaten and shot to death in his Boone Avenue home on Sept. 20, 2008. Cross had lived at the home since 1968.

Expected to testify is Cross’s housekeeper, Teresa M. Nelson. Nelson pleaded guilty to first-degree theft in February 2009 for stealing a ring from Cross’s girlfriend’s home. Nelson first told police she met Brewczynski through a dating phone line but has since denied knowing him.

The trial in Spokane County Superior Court is scheduled to last eight days. Judge Annette Plese is presiding.

Brewczynski was arrested in 1997 in what detectives described as a community policing dragnet. (The picture up top is from that arrest.) He was suspected in more than three dozen burglaries. He served seven years in prison but was arrested for burglary just months after his release. (Read the story from 2004 here.)

Past coverage:

Burglar’s storage unit yields dead man’s ID

Murder victim may have been targeted

Accused killer pleads not guilty