Death Penalty Sought In Double Rape, Murder

Spokane County Prosecutor Jim Sweetser filed notice in Superior Court Friday that he will seek the death penalty for a man accused of raping and beating to death two women earlier this year.

Dwayne Woods, 25, has pleaded innocent to two charges of first-degree aggravated murder for the deaths of Jade Moore, 18, and Telisha Shaver, 22.

He also pleaded innocent to attempted first-degree murder in the beating of Venus Shaver, 19.

The women were assaulted in a Spokane Valley mobile home in April. All were hit in the head with a baseball bat and two were stabbed with a kitchen knife.

Before she died the next day, Jade Moore said a man known as “Dwayne” had attacked her.

Sweetser said the law allows the death penalty when a crime has aggravating circumstances. He said this crime qualifies because two murders and two rapes were committed, along with a robbery, and the deaths were inflicted with a deadly weapon.

Trial is set for late October in Spokane County Superior Court. Woods is in Spokane County Jail.

Woods’ attorneys, Gary Hemingway and Richard Fasy, could not be reached for comment. At his plea hearing, Woods insisted he was nowhere near the mobile home the day the murders occurred. Police say they have a witness who will say he picked Woods up near that area the morning of the attack.

If convicted of first-degree aggravated murder, the jury has the choice of either the death penalty or life in prison without parole.

, DataTimes