Trial halted after witness won’t testify

Charges against an Okanogan County teenager were permanently dismissed Wednesday because a co-defendant in a Nov. 7 murder and robbery of a Tonasket-area teenager refused to testify.

Testimony had just gotten under way in the trial of 18-year-old Devin Duran Palmanteer when the already-convicted murderer, Seymour Xavier Reuben Jr., also 18, refused to be sworn in as a witness against Palmanteer.

Palmanteer was charged with lesser crimes related to the murder of 40-year-old Leonard J. Bauer, whom Reuben shot in the head with a .22-caliber pistol. Authorities say Bauer had given Reuben, Palmanteer and 21-year-old Ryan William Adolph Louie a ride after the young men’s vehicle rolled off the road in a wooded location about 20 miles northeast of Omak.

According to court documents, Palmanteer rode in the cab of Bauer’s pickup while Reuben and his half-brother Louie sat atop a load of wood in the pickup bed. Some of the wood fell off as they went down a mountain road.

When Bauer stopped to pick up the wood, Reuben pulled out a pistol and shot him in the head. In addition to stealing Bauer’s truck, the suspects took his wood and chain saw, authorities said.

Bauer’s truck was found four days later at Camp Disautel, about 15 miles southeast of Omak on the Colville Indian Reservation – near the suspects’ homes.

Reuben was charged with first-degree murder, but pleaded guilty last month to second-degree murder in a plea bargain that didn’t require him to testify against Palmanteer. Reuben also pleaded guilty to first-degree robbery, first-degree theft and unlawful possession of a firearm, as charged.

When Reuben reiterated his refusal to testify, visiting Chelan County Superior Court Judge Lesley Allan concluded it would be useless to jail him for contempt of court. So she dismissed the charges against Palmanteer.

The only other eyewitness, Louie, has insisted since December that he was too drunk at the time of the crime to remember anything.

Louie pleaded guilty in April to first-degree theft, first-degree rendering criminal assistance, unauthorized removal or concealment of a body and tampering with evidence in exchange for dismissal of a first-degree robbery charge. He was sentenced to 17 months in prison.

Palmanteer was on trial for the same charges Louie originally faced: first-degree robbery, first-degree theft, first-degree rendering criminal assistance, unauthorized removal or concealment of a body and tampering with evidence.

Defense attorney Steve Graham, of Republic, Wash., said he had hoped to convince jurors that any testimony Reuben might have given would have been unreliable because Reuben was under the influence of the hallucinatory drug Ecstasy when the crimes occurred. Graham noted that Reuben had contemplated a diminished-capacity defense before he accepted a plea bargain.

Graham argued unsuccessfully Friday and again Monday that Palmanteer’s constitutional rights were violated because no fellow tribal members were among the potential jurors although tribal members comprise 11.5 percent of the county’s population. The reason, Graham said, is that summonses for jury duty are not binding on tribal members who live in the part of Okanogan County within the Colville Indian Reservation.

Graham said he couldn’t explain why only one Hispanic resident was in the jury pool even though the county has a large Hispanic population. The one Hispanic man summoned for jury duty had to be rejected because, although he was a legal resident, he was not a citizen.

Graham argued unsuccessfully that Palmanteer’s trial should have been transferred to federal court in Spokane, where tribal members could be required to serve as jurors.