New witnesses delay murder trial

Newly discovered jailhouse witnesses have emerged in the case of a Cheney man charged with killing his pregnant girlfriend.

At least two of the inmates, all of whom had spent time in the Spokane County Jail with suspect John E. Lipinski during the past year, are expected to testify in the murder trial, a deputy prosecutor said Thursday. Their emergence has caused delays in the trial, which originally was expected to conclude this week.

Lipinski, 21, is charged with two counts of second-degree murder in connection with the Aug. 11, 2004, death of his 19-year-old girlfriend, Melissa Saldivar. Their baby girl, Mataya, was delivered by an emergency procedure but died Oct. 1, 2004.

Assistant Public Defender John Stine spent most of the day questioning accident reconstruction expert Steve Kukuruza, who disagrees with the prosecution’s theory that Saldivar suffered her fatal skull fracture by being kicked out of a moving car.

Kukuruza played a videotape showing a mannequin being pushed out of a similar car at speeds indicated by Lipinski in police reports. Kukuruza said the most likely scenario would have been that Saldivar fell onto her side and rolled and not on the back of her head as suggested by the prosecution.

However, Deputy Prosecutor Steve Garvin asked if the mannequin could adequately depict how a real body would fall out of a moving car. Kukuruza conceded that it did not.

Garvin also asked Kukuruza what challenges are posed by not having a crime scene to study.

Lipinski never showed detectives where Saldivar’s body hit the pavement.

“When you don’t have a crime scene, it is very problematic for an investigation,” Kukuruza said.