Photos of victims OK’d in Russell trial

KELSO, Wash. – Prosecutors and defense attorneys clashed again Tuesday in the vehicular homicide trial of former Washington State University student Fred Russell, arguing over evidence of Russell’s blood-alcohol level after the triple-fatality 2001 crash.

Also Tuesday, security was tightened after lawyers learned that courthouse security a day earlier found a knife on the father of one of the WSU students killed in the crash. The man, who sat on the other side of the courtroom from Russell, characterized it as an innocent mistake with a small pocketknife.

After two days of arguments over what jurors will see and hear, Whitman County Superior Court Judge David Frazier has decided:

“Jurors will see graphic crash scene photos of dead victims in a wrecked car.

“They’ll also see family photos of the victims.

“But they won’t hear that both Russell and the three dead college students – who were in another car – all had traces of marijuana in their blood.

Frazier denied the prosecution’s request to have the family photos of the dead students “introduced” to the jury by their grieving parents.

“I can’t conceive of them getting on the witness stand and not getting extremely emotional and not breaking up,” the judge said Monday evening. “It does appear to me to be a plea for sympathy from the jury. … We need to stop somewhere with the emotional pleas here.”

He made no immediate ruling Tuesday on the blood-alcohol test data.

Attorneys in the case spent much of Tuesday questioning the dozens of potential jurors in the case. Although the four-car crash happened in Whitman County, Frazier moved the trial across the state to rural Cowlitz County to find jurors who’d heard little about the sensational case. Shortly after the crash, Russell jumped bail, fleeing to Canada and then Ireland, where he was caught four years later.

Among the key questions jurors were asked Tuesday: Can you judge another human being?

“People have died,” Assistant Attorney General Melanie Tratnik told the potential jurors. “Many people are interested. Many people will be affected by the decision you make.”

One middle-age man said he didn’t feel smart enough.

“You have fancy words, and I can’t understand the meaning,” he said.

A young woman who lost a friend in a drunken-driving wreck in high school said she’d been up since 4 a.m., distraught at the thought of deciding Russell’s fate.

An elderly retired health teacher said he doubted his own impartiality.

“Being I’m a teetotaler, I don’t know if I could be fair to that side,” he said, pointing to Russell and his three-lawyer defense team. “I also went to school at WSU.”

Attorneys for both sides were warm to the potential jurors, smiling, laughing at their jokes, making eye contact. Defense attorney Francisco Duarte, in particular, often sounded more like a counselor than a lawyer as he elicited stories of jurors’ personal struggles with children, a suicide, a wife with cancer, family meltdowns.

“I want to know you,” he said.

“This is like ‘Dr. Phil,’ but more painful,” one juror whispered to another in the back of the room.

The case took a bizarre turn Tuesday afternoon after courthouse security revealed that a day earlier they had found a knife on Rich Morrow, father of deceased WSU student Stacy Morrow. Defense attorneys – who said that Russell has received recent death threats – said they and Russell are worried about his security. Defense attorney Diego Vargas said that security officers characterized Morrow as trying to “sneak” the knife into the courthouse. “That was the word they used to us,” he said.

“Was it innocent?” said defense attorney Francisco Duarte. “I think Mr. Morrow has been around courthouses long enough to know you can’t bring in a knife.”

Morrow scoffed, saying he had a small pocketknife that his son, when a boy, had given to him.

“It’s just a memento,” he said, denying that he’d concealed the knife in any way. “It was totally innocent.”

Morrow – who’s been an outspoken advocate for the families of the dead students and several others who were badly injured – said he’s glad to see Russell standing trial. But he said he’d never try to hurt him.

“The defense is enjoying the drama,” he said of the pocketknife, “and they’re going to make a drama out of it.”

Frazier allowed Morrow back in the courtroom, flanked by two law enforcement officers.

“We will be having an armed deputy here throughout the rest of the proceeding,” the judge said. He’s also not letting Morrow sit near Russell or his mother and aunt, who have been sitting just behind Russell every day.

Jury selection and procedural arguments resume this morning, after a meeting to discuss courtroom security. Opening arguments in the three- to four-week trial are expected Thursday.