Man convicted of killing girlfriend
For a moment Tuesday, a double-murder suspect from Cheney heard what he wanted to hear: “Not guilty.”
But John E. Lipinski’s elation was replaced by tears seconds later as the same jury continued on to the companion charges: guilty of killing his girlfriend and unborn daughter in 2004.
At a minimum, the verdict will keep 22-year-old Lipinski in prison until he’s 62.
The decision brought tears to both families, one supporting Lipinski and the other fighting for justice for 19-year-old Melissa Saldivar, who died of a fractured skull on Aug. 11, 2004. Doctors were able to deliver her and Lipinski’s daughter, Mataya, but the 2-pound, 13-ounce baby died on Oct. 1, 2004.
“My baby,” Melissa Saldivar’s mother, Tina Saldivar, said as she embraced family members.
“I think (Melissa) would be glad that he is off the streets,” Tina Saldivar said of Lipinski, “and that he won’t be hurting anyone else.”
Lipinski never testified, but he previously told investigators that Saldivar had jumped out of a moving car, causing her own death.
Lipinski’s parents, Rick and Nancy Lipinski, rushed from the courtroom and were unavailable for comment.
But Lipinski family friend Susan Forster ripped both the Spokane Police Department and Deputy Prosecutor Steve Garvin.
“They let a child molester out to hang an innocent man,” Forster said referring to jailhouse witness Eric Shane Buck who testified Monday.
Buck, a convicted child molester, avoided more prison time by testifying against Lipinski. Buck said under oath that Lipinski described pushing his girlfriend out of a moving car as the perfect crime.
“This is a joke,” Forster said of the trial. “The justice system stinks.”
The initial confusion was caused by the charges.
Garvin charged Lipinski with three different counts of second-degree murder. On the first count, the jury had to decide whether he intentionally pushed Saldivar out of the car to kill her. On that count, it voted not guilty.
On the second count, Garvin charged Lipinski with felony murder in the second degree, which means that he killed Saldivar while committing felony assault. The jury found him guilty on that count and the third count of felony second-degree murder for baby Mataya.
“It was a challenging case,” said Garvin, who praised detective Tim Madsen’s work. “We are very thankful that the jury came to what we believe is the correct conclusion.”
Both second-degree murder convictions carry sentences of a minimum of 20 years that must run consecutively, meaning that Lipinski must serve a minimum of 40 years in prison, Garvin said.
The jury also found him guilty of an aggravating factor – that he knew Saldivar was pregnant. That means that Superior Court Judge Harold Clarke could sentence Lipinski to serve life in prison at the sentencing hearing on April 19.
Tina Saldivar said she just wishes she could have seen the warning signs in time to save her daughter.
“I didn’t want to be an interfering mom,” Saldivar said. “I want to feel sorry for (Lipinski), but I don’t because he doesn’t feel sorry for anybody else.”