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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Killer’s Original Lawyer Faults Tactics Palmer Murderer, On Death Row Since ‘81, Gets Boost At Federal Appeal Hearing

Associated Press

The lawyer who represented condemned murderer Thomas Henry Gibson at his 1981 murder trial admitted Monday that he should have handled the defense differently.

Coeur d’Alene attorney Michael Vrable said at the start of an evidentiary hearing before U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill that he was blindsided by a medical examiner’s trial testimony that undermined Gibson’s case.

Gibson, 45, of Spokane, has been on Idaho’s death row longer than any current inmate, since Nov. 6, 1981. He and Donald Manuel Paradis both were convicted of first-degree murder for the June 1980 strangulation of 19-year-old Kimberly Ann Palmer, whose body was found in a North Idaho stream wrapped in a sleeping bag.

Paradis, 47, also was sentenced to die, but Gov. Phil Batt commuted his sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole last May after questions arose about his guilt.

Gibson consistently testified that Paradis, a fellow motorcycle gang member, was not at the scene when Palmer was killed, but he also has insisted all along that the slaying occurred at Paradis’ Spokane home - not in Idaho.

With his state appeals exhausted, Gibson went to federal court for a hearing on the circumstances of his trial and allegations of prosecutorial misconduct. The hearing is expected to last all week.

On Monday, Vrable said his trial strategy was to show the evidence was inconsistent with the murder having been committed in Idaho, so the state had no jurisdiction to try Gibson.

He said he believed Dr. William Brady, the former Oregon state medical examiner who conducted the autopsy, would testify that he had no opinion on whether Palmer was killed in Idaho or Washington. That belief was based on the autopsy report and conversations with Brady, Vrable said.

But an April 30, 1981, newspaper article cited Marc Haws, a deputy Kootenai County prosecutor at the time, saying Palmer took an “instinctive gulp” and inhaled water as she lay in the Idaho creek, indicating she was alive at the time.

“It was the first time I’d heard about that,” Vrable said. But another call to Brady reassured him that concluding Palmer was still alive when she was dropped face-down in the creek bed “would be overreaching.”

Then at Gibson’s trial, Brady testified that his findings were consistent with Palmer struggling near the place where her body was dumped, largely reflecting what Haws said in the newspaper article. Vrable said he was surprised by the testimony and unprepared to respond to it.

“My opinion at that point was that was going to give the state enough to give it to the jury,” he said. “I thought the jury verdict would return guilty.”

Under questioning from Hailey attorney Andrew Parnes, representing Gibson, Vrable acknowledged he did not ask for a delay at that point to hire or consult with an expert who might be able to refute Brady’s testimony.

“Do you feel you made a mistake by not getting an expert?” Parnes asked.

“Correct,” Vrable replied.

Three outside experts testified at Paradis’ commutation hearing last spring that a review of Brady’s autopsy clearly indicated she did not inhale water from the stream. They also said in the petition for the commutation hearing that Brady’s testimony on inhalation of water “was without scientific basis, misleading, unprofessional or false.”

But Idaho Solicitor General Lynn Thomas questioned Vrable’s statement on Monday that Brady’s trial testimony was inconsistent with his autopsy report. And Vrable agreed with Thomas that by admitting he made a mistake handling the case, the defense attorney was only saying he “would have liked to have tried a different strategy in hindsight.”