Hearing sets Russell trials for October

Frederick Russell, the former Washington State University student charged in the drunken driving deaths of three classmates in 2001, is scheduled to stand trial on Oct. 8.

The trial date was set at a hearing Thursday in Whitman Superior Court in Colfax, said Lana Weinman of the state attorney general’s office.

He will face three charges of vehicular homicide and three of vehicular assault.

Another trial date of Oct. 29, was set on charges of theft and forgery linked to allegations that Russell stole and forged a check on his father’s account before fleeing the country in 2001.

A charge of bail-jumping has been dropped, as part of extradition proceedings with Ireland, where Russell was found living under an assumed name in October 2005.

Prosecutors allege Russell was drunk, driving 90 mph and attempting to pass on the treacherous Moscow-Pullman highway on June 4, 2001, crashing into three other cars.

Killed in the crash were Brandon Clements, 22; Stacy G. Morrow, 21; and Ryan Sorensen, also 21.

According to the charges, Russell registered a 0.12 blood-alcohol level after the accident, above the legal limit of 0.08.