Defense Targets Star Witness Lawyers Say Informant Lied; Contend One Suspect Gone During Bombings

One suspect was out of state during the first of last year’s Spokane bombings.

The government’s star witness exaggerated his role in the case, lied to an ex-cop and bragged about how much money he made as an informant.

And an FBI agent suggested that a witness leave town rather than give testimony that would hurt the government’s case.

That is what witnesses told jurors Friday, as defense attorneys kicked off their case in Spokane’s bombing trial.

Prosecutors rested their case Friday morning against Charles Barbee, 45; Robert Berry, 43; and Verne Jay Merrell, 51.

The Sandpoint white separatists are in their second trial on charges they bombed Valley offices of The Spokesman-Review, Planned Parenthood and U.S. Bank and twice robbed the bank April 1, 1996 and a year ago today.

The first trial ended in a hung jury in April, when one juror refused to convict on the most serious charges.

Defense testimony Friday centered on government informant Christopher Davidson Jr. and Merrell, who prosecutors contend was the getaway driver during the bombings.

“A person can’t be at two places in one time,” Merrell’s attorney Frank Conklin said, in his opening statement. “That’s the heart of the defense.”

Merrell’s brother and his family testified that the Sandpoint white separatist was visiting them in Colorado - 1,000 miles away - until the day before the first bombing. They remember because their children were on spring break, they said.

Merrell’s common law wife, LaWren Ellsworth, even provided a calendar marked with notes reminding her to care for Merrell’s chickens while he was away.

But prosecutors suggested Merrell’s trip actually came a week after the bombing, and pointed out Ellsworth’s calendar was marked in pencil and showed many erasure marks.

Merrell’s brother also admitted he once tried to help Merrell mark up an airplane boarding pass so he could fly without showing identification.

North Idaho private detective Ted Pulver told jurors that he’d used Davidson as a confidential informant in his own business, and last saw him after the defendants were arrested Oct. 8.

At that time, Pulver said, Davidson bragged that he’d secretly recorded the defendants using computer chips stuffed in eyeglasses and candy bars.

Davidson only used telephone recordings because he was afraid defendants would detect a body wire, earlier testimony revealed. None of the recordings provided incriminat ing evidence.

Pulver also testified that Davidson, who weighs 350 pounds, claimed he would make $6,000 a month for three years while in the federal witness protection program, and then might go to work for the FBI - provided he first slimmed down.

And Pulver told jurors that Davidson once tried to sell him a .20-caliber mounted machine gun - a charge Davidson repeatedly denied during his own testimony.

Davidson even called Pulver in recent weeks, trying to convince the former sheriff’s deputy that he remembered the incident wrong, Pulver said.

Pulver testified that when he called the U.S. Attorney’s office earlier this week to let the lawyers know Davidson was bugging him, he spoke with FBI agent David Bedford. Bedford made the same statements Davidson had, Pulver told jurors, then suggested Pulver leave town to avoid being subpoenaed by defense lawyers.

“He used the same exact examples of what I could change my story to,” an angry Pulver said in an interview after court Friday. “I was sort of in shock.”

Bedford, in a short interview after court, admitted talking to Pulver on Wednesday, but said Pulver had misunderstood him.

“I said, ‘Are you sure you saw it this way,’ or ‘Is this really what you saw?”’ Bedford said. “I was relaying to him what Chris Davidson had told me, to see if that was accurate or not. He said, ‘I’m not going to lie.’ I told him ‘I’m not asking you to lie.”’

As in the previous trial, Merrell is expected to testify in his own defense next week. It’s not clear if Barbee and Berry will follow suit.

The three men are charged with eight felonies and face up to life in prison without parole if convicted.

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