Deal solves killing from ‘91

A cold-case murder without a body was resolved Friday in U.S. District Court in Spokane when a man with a lengthy criminal record confessed to the 1991 killing of Edwin “Eddy” Pooler on the Colville Indian Reservation.

As part of a plea bargain, James H. Gallaher Jr. will avoid the possibility of spending the rest of his life in prison by promising to lead FBI agents and tribal police to an unidentified remote spot on the 1.4-million-acre reservation where he hid Pooler’s body in April 1991.

The “cultural consideration” of giving a Native American a “proper burial,” noted in the written plea agreement, apparently helped seal the deal with Gallaher, who has been in prison on other charges the last seven years. “Ed Pooler was my cousin, and I did kill him, sir,” Gallaher told Judge Robert Whaley. “I feel I should be punished for what I’ve done.”

“I dumped my cousin in the hills,” Gallaher told the judge, who didn’t press the defendant on what he did with the body.

Pooler was killed after he splattered on Gallaher’s 11-month-old daughter while urinating in the living room of a house in Keller, Wash., on the reservation, the court was told.

The body of the 45-year-old victim has never been found, despite the posting of a reward and missing posters and extensive searches and digging at various sites on the reservation.

The missing man’s sister, Lynda Tonasket, of Keller, personally has carried out many of 80 or 90 “digs,” also searching in vain for another of her brothers, George Pooler. He disappeared in November 1988, and she fears he also was a murder victim, killed by someone other than Gallaher.

Friday’s plea ended her last “little bit of hope” about her brother Ed, Tonasket said.

“It finally hit me that he really, really is dead,” Tonasket said Friday after getting a telephone call from the U.S. Attorney’s Office about Gallaher’s confession to killing Ed Pooler.

Tonasket said she and other family members agreed with the plea bargain in the hopes Pooler’s remains can be recovered.

Gallaher pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter, meaning he won’t stand trial next month on a first-degree murder charge contained in an indictment returned against him in December 2005.

As part of the plea agreement, the 49-year-old defendant “agrees to cooperate with FBI agents and other law enforcement officers to identify the location of Edwin Pooler’s remains,” the court document says.

FBI agents said they may only find partial skeletal remains or bits of clothing, if anything.

Gallaher acknowledges the “important spiritual, cultural and personal considerations of providing a proper burial” for Pooler’s remains, the written plea agreement said.

Asked by the judge to briefly describe the crime, Gallaher said he fatally punched Pooler, a smaller man, in the head and drove his body to a remote area.

Court documents say witnesses told FBI agents that Gallaher broke Pooler’s neck after having him in a headlock. They also say Gallaher moved the body to a secondary location several days after taking it to an initial spot with help from a friend who was told “he’d be next” if he didn’t cooperate.

Gallaher faced the possibility of life in prison if convicted of first-degree murder but will receive a maximum of six years under guidelines for involuntary manslaughter.

The judge said he was only “conditionally accepting” the guilty plea until sentencing on Aug. 27, following a pre-sentence background report on the defendant.

The indictment against Gallaher is believed to be the first time in the Eastern District of Washington that a murder charge has been filed without recovery of a body.

The trial date has been postponed a few times as plea negotiations went on between Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Harrington and Gallaher’s attorneys, Assistant Federal Defenders Steve Hormel and Amy Rubin.

Harrington said in an interview that the U.S. Attorney’s Office agreed to the plea bargain because investigators never located the victim’s body and faced taking Gallaher to trial with only the testimony of four witnesses, whose credibility likely would have been attacked by defense attorneys.

At various times, the witnesses told FBI agents, Gallaher admitted to them that he had killed Pooler on April 14, 1991, at a house in Keller, Wash., on the Colville reservation.

One witness who served time in prison with Gallaher told FBI agents that Gallaher admitted killing Pooler and had buried his head, hands and feet and “shot the body up in an animal pit.”

“Gallaher said authorities would never find (Pooler’s) skull and that although he was a suspect, he has never been charged because the body was never found,” the plea agreement says.

Gallaher and a woman companion had a child together and allowed Pooler to stay in their home on occasion.

On April 14, 1991, Pooler was drunk when he arrived at Gallaher’s home, where he passed out or fell asleep in the living room.

“At some point, Pooler roused himself, stood up, unzipped his pants and urinated on the living room floor,” the court document says. “It appeared he was so drunk that he did not fully realize what he was doing.”

Pooler’s urine “splattered on Gallaher’s baby daughter,” who was picked up by her mother. She later told Gallaher about what had occurred and he promised to “take care of the problem,” the court document says.

“I don’t buy that,” Tonasket said when asked if she believes the urination incident was the motive behind her brother’s killing. She believes Gallaher found out her brother was having an affair with the infant’s mother, and that’s what motivated him to kill Pooler.

Gallaher has three previous convictions in U.S. District Court.

He was convicted in 1991 of theft of government property for stealing 37 spawning salmon at the Leavenworth National Fish Hatchery. He was sentenced to 21 months in prison.

In 1992, he was convicted of abusive sexual contact with a girl under 12 and sentenced to 70 months in prison.

In 1999, he was convicted of being a felon in possession of ammunition and sentenced to 71 months in prison.

Previous convictions in state court include a 1977 conviction for assault; a 1978 conviction for second-degree robbery; a 1985 conviction for second-degree assault; and a 1987 conviction for fourth-degree assault. He also has two drunken-driving convictions.

In court, Gallaher described himself as a “recovering alcoholic” who hasn’t had a drop to drink since he went to prison the last time, seven years ago.