Pirtle’s Execution Upheld Court Affirms Death Penalty For Brutal Spokane Murders

Blake R. Pirtle should be executed for the “very brutal” murders of two young restaurant workers in Spokane, the state Supreme Court affirmed Thursday.

The unanimous decision upholding Pirtle’s 1993 death sentence came with surprising swiftness - four months after the high court heard oral arguments on 14 separate appeals.

“I’m shocked at how fast it came,” said Spokane County Deputy Prosecutor Kevin Korsmo.

During his trial, Pirtle admitted to the throat-slashing killings, but argued the bloodshed wasn’t premeditated.

The Spokane Valley man blamed chronic drug abuse for sparking his sudden psychotic seizure inside the Burger King on North Argonne Road, about a mile from his home.

While robbing the restaurant on May 17, 1992, Pirtle killed two former co-workers: 20-year-old Dawnya Calbreath and 24-year-old Tod Folsom.

A Superior Court jury found that part of Pirtle’s motive for killing Calbreath was revenge for her role in his firing two weeks earlier. Pirtle had been accused of sexually harassing female workers.

Pirtle’s sweeping death-penalty appeal included the contention he was abused as a child, had no history of violent crime and suffered from brain damage due to drug abuse.

“Pirtle’s argument ignores the fact the jury must consider these mitigators against the nature of the crime, including the aggravating factors,” the court said in an opinion written by Justice Charles Johnson.

“Here, the jury has found two very brutal murders planned and committed to facilitate a robbery, along with revenge. Given these facts, the jury could well have felt the mitigating factors were insufficient to merit leniency,” the court said.

Korsmo said the savagery of the crimes sets Pirtle apart.

“You don’t see that kind of brutality very often,” he said.

Pirtle knocked Calbreath unconscious during a struggle in a walk-in refrigerator, then twice bent over her body to repeatedly slash her throat with a bread knife.

Folsom begged for his life before Pirtle crushed his skull with a 15-pound fire extinguisher. Afterward, the killer sawed away at Folsom’s throat with a knife and hacksaw.

Pirtle was convicted of two counts of aggravated first-degree murder.

Among the other arguments rejected by the Supreme Court was Pirtle’s assertion that the trial judge erred by refusing to admit as defense evidence an essay that had been written by Calbreath expressing opposition to the death penalty.

The victim wrote the two-page essay in May 1991 for a sociology class at Spokane Community College.

Superior Court Judge Michael Donohue kept the essay from the jury after finding it “irrelevant.”

Justices agreed.

“A defendant may introduce evidence of mitigating circumstances which might merit leniency,” the high court said, but “despite Pirtle’s assertions to the contrary, ‘mitigating evidence’ is not defined as any evidence, regardless of its content or relevance, that would disincline the jury to impose the penalty of death.”

Rather, “mitigating evidence is that which in fairness and mercy, may be considered as extenuating or reducing the degree of moral culpability,” the court said.

Pirtle still has other state and federal avenues for appeal of the sentence - a process that could take years to exhaust.

Pirtle’s lawyer, Joan Fisher of Genesee, Idaho, said she already is looking ahead to challenging the sentence at the federal level.

“We have a long way to go and I’m optimistic about the ultimate result,” she said.

Pirtle, 27, is one of eight inmates on death row at the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla.

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The following fields overflowed: BYLINE = William Miller Staff writer The Associated Press contributed to this report.