Defendant Made Race Comments Hispanics Called Derogatory Name During Confession, Officer Testifies

Alejandro Sanchez Torres and Guillermo Roman Herrera were “just spicks” to one of the men who admitted beating and drowning them in the Okanogan River on Sept. 27, according to an Omak police sergeant.

Sgt. Frank Rogers said Omak resident Scott Pierce, 21, made that remark when he confessed the night after the murders.

Co-defendant Anthony Sammons, 25, was convicted in March of two counts of aggravated first-degree murder. He is now serving a mandatory life sentence without parole.

Rogers said he reminded Pierce “he had just killed two human beings” when the suspect showed no remorse while confessing the crime.

“He yelled at me and said they are ‘just spicks,”’ Rogers testified Wednesday in Pierce’s trial on two counts of first-degree aggravated murder.

When Rogers returned the next morning to take a taped statement, he said the racial epithets disappeared.

Okanogan County Public Defender Scot Stuart said that’s because Pierce had sobered up. Pierce was drunk the night before and angry about being restrained by police, with whom he had been fighting, Stuart said.

Rogers said Pierce had been drinking, but appeared “coherent” during his first interview.

Even in the second interview, Pierce said he didn’t like Hispanics.

When the recording was played Thursday in court, jurors heard a popping sound where part of the tape was cut. Superior Court Judge Jack Thomas ruled earlier that the jury couldn’t hear Pierce tell about a roommate, reportedly a skinhead, he had for a few months in Spokane.

Stuart hinted in a motion to suppress that part of the tape that the roommate had attended racist rallies. Pierce denied attending any rallies, Stuart said.

Thomas also granted Stuart’s motion to keep the jury from learning Pierce has a tattoo on his chest that says “100 percent honky.”

When the tape resumed after the gap, Pierce explained why he doesn’t like Hispanics, who are a large minority in Okanogan County.

Pierce, whose stepfather is Hispanic, insisted he is not a racist. He said he and Sammons were “good enough” to give Sanchez Torres, 24, and Roman Herrera, 21, a ride after their car broke down, “and then they started fighting me.”

Pierce said Sanchez Torres and Roman Herrera knew little English, but he knows a little Spanish and they were able to communicate. He said the four of them went to his house to drink beer even though Sanchez Torres pulled a knife on Sammons and accused him of “ripping off” some money.

Pierce said the orchard workers repeatedly asked for cocaine.

Then, Pierce said, Sanchez Torres struck him and he hit back. Pierce, admitted he later punched the apparently overpowered victim so his girlfriend could hear the sound over the telephone. Jurors heard Pierce slap his hand to demonstrate the blow.

Pierce offered several versions of the events that followed, but insisted he didn’t intend to kill the victims when he and Sammons took them to the Okanogan River at a spot near the Omak Stampede rodeo grounds.

Based on witness reports and other evidence, including drag marks, Deputy Prosecutor Ron Hammett said the victims were helpless when they were tossed in the river and strangled. But Pierce said he and Sammons continued to fight with the victims at the river.

“I choked the big one,” Pierce said. “I don’t know if Tony (Sammons) choked the other one with his hands or drowned him or what. I wasn’t paying attention.”

It was “hot-blooded murder in the second degree,” Stuart told jurors Monday in his opening statement.

It was a drunken brawl that got out of hand, he said.

“You are waiting for me to tell you what evidence will prove he is not guilty,” Stuart said. “I’m sorry. I’m not going to do that. Scott Pierce is guilty. He drowned Sanchez in a fight in the Okanogan River.”

If the jury believes the crime was not premeditated and convicts Pierce of second-degree murder, he could be out of prison in less than 33 years.

Pierce has at least 14 juvenile convictions, starting with second-degree theft in 1985 when he was 10 years old and ending with a conviction in 1991 for stealing coins and his aunt’s pickup, which he wrecked. Most of his crimes were burglary or theft, and most were in Okanogan County, but he also was convicted of third-degree theft in Spokane County in June 1989.

He moved to Newport, Wash., around 1991 and attended Newport High School. Pierce was convicted of a drive-by shooting there when he was 18. He admitted firing several shots in the air with a stolen rifle.

, DataTimes The following fields overflowed: BYLINE = John Craig Staff writer Bill Stevenson of the Okanogan Valley Gazette-Tribune contributed to this report.