First of sex offender’s three trials begins

A convicted sex offender, who is now accused of murder, began the first of three separate rape and kidnapping trials Wednesday.

Brian William Frawley, 25, is suspected of killing 20-year-old Margaret Cordova, who disappeared Jan. 17, 2004. Her body, bound at the ankles, arms and neck, was found more than a month later by scavengers in a refuse pile north of Spokane off Freya Street.

The results of DNA tests on June 10, 2004, matched Frawley to semen found inside Cordova’s body, investigators said. They later also linked fibers from Cordova’s clothing to the car Frawley was driving that night, Deputy Prosecutor Andi Jakkola said, as the trial got under way before Superior Court Judge Neal Rielly.

In two interviews with investigators, Frawley denied ever knowing, dating or having sex with Cordova. Those statements “fly in the face of the DNA evidence that indicates that he obviously had intercourse with her,” Jakkola said.

Assistant public defender Richard Mathisen acknowledged in court Wednesday that his client lied to police.

Frawley “tried to distance himself from that horrendous act,” Mathisen said. “It’s one of those circumstances where if you deny you’re guilty, if you admit you’re guilty, it doesn’t matter. Once they have chosen who to go after, that’s who they are going to go after.”

But Jakkola pointed out that Frawley did tell his friends, with whom he was smoking methamphetamine that night, that he had killed a woman after he returned to his apartment in the early hours of Jan. 17.

Those friends will testify that Frawley “was upset and crying, and he gave them some story about having hit a female, killed her and dumped her body in the woods,” Jakkola said.

Mathisen said his client may testify about how he briefly knew Cordova, a mother who Mathisen said was living a “life in harm’s way.” He said, “Mr. Frawley was not the only person, or even necessarily the most logical person, to do her harm.”

“The ultimate result is that you will be able to find, with a clear conscience, that Mr. Frawley is not guilty of this heinous crime,” he said.

At age 17, Frawley was convicted of child rape in Cowlitz County. When he came to Spokane four years ago, according to court records, he was a fugitive from pending assault charges in Yakima County, and he failed to register as a sex offender.

Frawley faces two other trials as a suspect in crimes that occurred after Cordova was killed but before the results of the DNA testing.

He has been charged with kidnapping and raping a woman on April 18, 2004. That 25-year-old woman said she accepted a ride from Frawley, who eventually drove her to a construction site in Spokane Valley, raped her and left her gagged and tied to a tree. Frawley also faces the same charges in another case where a woman said he picked her up on June 5 from downtown Spokane. The woman said Frawley drove her to a wooded area near Peaceful Valley where he raped her at gunpoint, according to court records.

That woman told police that Frawley ordered her to give him her money – $2 – before releasing her. She said the suspect told her to hurry if she didn’t want to die and that she was lucky he wasn’t doing to her what he had done to other women, court records state.