Jury Still Out In Valley Strip Club Killing Ex-Marine Claims Shooting Was Self-Defense Sparked By Panic, Fear

Deliberations resume today in the trial of a former Marine accused of murdering a man last summer outside a Spokane Valley strip club.

The seven-woman, five-man Superior Court jury deliberated for about four hours Thursday.

Jurors will decide if 20-year-old Eric Swanson is guilty of first-degree murder for shooting Robert Wolbing Jr., 26, shortly after midnight on June 26.

In his closing argument Thursday, defense attorney Carl Oreskovich said Wolbing’s death was a “tragedy,” but the shooting was an act of self-defense, sparked by panic and fear.

“We’re not talking about having 20-20 hindsight about what we think should have happened then,” Oreskovich said.

“We’re talking about what this young man knew in the course of less than half a minute. That he had no reasonable alternative to the threat he felt in the darkness that night.”

Deputy Prosecutor Mark Lindsey told the jury the killing was premeditated, stressing that the victim was shot three times.

“One shot might be self-defense. Two shots mean there is a plan to kill,” the prosecutor said.

Late-night trash-talking led to the bloodshed.

Wolbing was seated with three friends in a car parked outside the Deja Vu Night Club on East Sprague. Swanson and two friends had just left the club and were walking toward their car when insults were exchanged between the groups.

Seconds later, Wolbing and his friends began marching toward Swanson, apparently intent on starting a fight.

In his testimony, Swanson said he thought he saw Wolbing carrying a gun. He said he rushed to his car, pulled out a .40-caliber pistol, and inserted an ammunition clip loaded with hollow-point bullets.

Giving no warning, Swanson said he quickly took aim at the bigger man and fired three times. Wolbing, who was unarmed, died shortly afterward.

Swanson said he feared another person might be armed so he fired another five shots at Wolbing’s companions. One of those men, David Quigley, 27, was wounded.

For those shootings, the defendant faces three additional counts of firstdegree assault.

Oreskovich and Lindsey both cited Swanson’s Marine training in their closing arguments. Lindsey said Swanson, a lance corporal on leave at the time, was trained in handto-hand combat and should have known how to use “cover and concealment” to avoid harm if he truly thought his life was in danger.

“This was a 19-year-old kid who’d been in the Marines for one year,” Oreskovich countered. “There was nothing he learned in the Marines that would have taught him to be cool, don’t panic, don’t use a gun if your life’s in danger.”

, DataTimes