Judge Rules Confession Is Admissible Racial Tension Grows After Two Hispanics Killed

A judge ruled Friday that jurors may hear Anthony W. Sammons’ confession in a double murder that has angered the community’s Hispanic population.

Sammons, 25, and Scott D. Pierce, 20, are accused of beating two Mexican orchard workers repeatedly and dumping them in the Okanogan River in Omak on Sept. 27.

Some members of the city’s Hispanic community believe the victims - Alejandro Torres Sanchez, 24, and Guillermo Hererra Roman, 21 - were killed simply because of their race. At the very least, they suspect racism on the part of witnesses who failed to help the victims.

“To know that nobody lent a hand to help them, that’s what a lot of the Hispanics were upset about,” said Eva Gonzales, an interpreter for the state Department of Social and Health Services in Omak. “What would it have cost them to report it?”

It was particularly distressing, she said, because the victims apparently did nothing to provoke the attack. They didn’t drink, and Torres Sanchez was about to return to Mexico to see his month-old baby for the first time.

In Friday’s hearing, police officers explained how Sammons confessed to them twice after being advised of his constitutional rights each time. Details of the confession were not discussed.

Okanogan County Superior Court Judge Pro Tem Jim Thomas ruled both confessions may be presented to jurors even though Sammons apparently was drunk during the first one. Thomas granted defense attorney Jeff Barker’s motion to seal a transcript of the second confession.

“Publicity of what is in there could very possibly taint a jury,” Thomas said.

Authorities say a neighbor saw a Hispanic man being beaten at Pierce’s house in Omak on two occasions on the night of the murder. Even though the incidents were separated by two hours, the neighbor apparently did nothing.

A 15-year-old girl and her 19-year-old boyfriend, both Hispanic, believe the murders contributed to a fight among groups of teenagers - mostly Hispanics and Indians - in downtown Omak on Halloween night. Even Friday, despite public denials by police, the girl believed the murder victims were sexually mutilated.

Although whites and Indians may have their own differences, they band together against Hispanics, the teenagers said. They asked not be identified for fear of reprisals.

Police called the fight gang-related and said it was one of several recent incidents that underscored growing racial tension between Hispanic and Indian youths. City police and the Okanogan County Sheriff’s Department promised to crack down on gang activity, and community meetings were called to help ease tensions.

Omak’s year-round Hispanic population is comparatively small but growing. The population swells greatly from April to October when migrants come to work in apple and cherry orchards.

Other parts of Okanogan County have large permanent Hispanic communities. So many Hispanics live in Brewster and Bridgeport that the area is called “Little Mexico,” Gonzales said.

Defense attorneys and two judges have barred the release of documents detailing the murder of Sanchez and Roman, but unsealed court records suggest the victims were killed for sport. There is no indication of robbery or that the defendants knew the victims or had a grievance against them.

Rather, Prosecutor Richard Weber said Pierce “bragged to several individuals” that he and Sammons had “picked up two Mexicans, beat them up, and dumped them in the river.”

Deputy Prosecutor Ronald Hammett declined to comment on the motive, but said he will not seek the death penalty against the defendants.

“We didn’t feel that we could get it in this case,” he said.

If Pierce and Sammons are convicted of aggravated first-degree murder as charged, they would face mandatory life sentences without parole.

, DataTimes