Prosecutors To Challenge Bombing Suspect’s Alibi Two New Witnesses Expected To Dispute Lineman’s Time Line Today

Federal prosecutors are preparing to challenge testimony from a key defense witness who gave accused terrorist Verne Jay Merrell an alibi for one of the Spokane Valley bombings in the first trial.

Telephone lineman Jay Dennis, who once hired Merrell to help build his house, said he spotted Merrell in Sandpoint less than an hour before the bombing 75 miles away.

On Wednesday, Dennis was called as a witness by prosecutors. He again said he’s certain he talked briefly to Merrell on July 12, between 12:45 and 1:30 p.m.

Dennis said he remembers the date because he had just finished a large repair job on a cut cable at a Washington Water Power Co. construction site.

The Valley Planned Parenthood clinic was bombed at 1:40 p.m.

Dennis was the first witness called by defense lawyers in the first trial of Merrell, 51, Charles Barbee, 45, and Robert Berry, 43. The three men are accused of three bombings and two bank robberies in the Valley last year.

Prosecutors apparently called Dennis to prepare the jury for testimony from two new witnesses expected to take the stand today.

Clyde Richardson and Kendall Gilbert, contractors working with Dennis on the same WWP job last July, are expected to dispute the lineman’s time line.

In his testimony Wednesday, Dennis was adamant that his memory and time cards told the story. He said he had no reason to lie for Merrell, whom he had last seen in May 1994.

Dennis did say Merrell “wasn’t as friendly as he normally is. He seemed kind of unsettled.”

Dennis was one of 13 witnesses called by prosecutors in the third day of testimony in the retrial of Barbee, Berry and Merrell.

The first trial ended in a deadlocked jury. One juror said he couldn’t convict the defendants on charges linked to the bombings of Valley offices of The Spokesman-Review, the U.S. Bank and Planned Parenthood, and two robberies of the same bank branch.

The three were convicted on minor car theft charges.

A fourth man faces a trial in September on charges of helping bomb the clinic and rob the bank on July 12.

In other testimony Wednesday, prosecutors called Denise Derrickson to the stand.

Derrickson, who once let Merrell live in her family’s home, told jurors she spotted him in a grocery store a half-hour before the newspaper office was bombed on April 1. She said she panicked, turned around and then later went back to talk to him.

Craig Kuehl, an assistant U.S. Bank vice president for commercial loans, told jurors about his double nightmare - seeing masked men walk through his bank’s doors April 1 and again July 12.

Both times, he tried to be observant, noting the robbers’ heights, weights and clothing.

During the second robbery, he said he did the hardest thing he’s ever had to do. As he faced the west wall of the bank, his hands in the air, he listened to a robber arguing with tellers and trying to open money drawers. He looked at the woman in front of him.

Head teller Tracy Lafayette wasn’t where she was supposed to be.

“Sweetheart,” he said. “You’re gonna have to go over there.”

“I know,” Lafayette replied, and Kuehl turned around to tell the robbers where the head teller was. Lafayette then walked over to again face a robber and his gun.

Kuehl choked up during his testimony.

“Basically, I gave up this wonderful human being that could get hurt,” he said.

, DataTimes