Prosecutors seek Russell trial move

Sun., Sept. 23, 2007

From Staff Reports The Spokesman-Review

Prosecutors are seeking to have Fred Russell’s vehicular homicide trial moved out of Whitman County – a couple of months after the defense team unsuccessfully requested the same thing.

Though Judge David Frazier hasn’t issued a final ruling on the defense motion to move the trial because of overwhelming publicity about the case, he said in July that he would try first to seat a jury of Whitman County residents. If he became convinced that fair jurors could not be found, he’d then seek to bring in jurors from another county, he said.

Prosecutors argued against the initial defense motion, but now the state is asking to have the trial moved to Benton County, Lana Weinmann, an assistant state attorney general, told the Moscow-Pullman Daily News. A hearing is scheduled for 10 a.m. Monday in Whitman County Superior Court.

The reason for the change wasn’t immediately apparent, and attorneys in the case couldn’t be reached Saturday.

Russell defense attorney Francisco Duarte said he’d like the case moved to Western Washington, ideally Skagit County because it’s rural and thus similar to Whitman County.

Prosecutors allege Russell was intoxicated and caused a four-car crash on the Moscow-Pullman Highway that killed three Washington State University students and injured four others in June 2001.

Russell’s attorneys have argued that charges against Russell should be dismissed because the state apparently accidentally destroyed the sample of his blood that was tested to determine if he was drunk when the crash occurred. Prosecutors contend results of Russell’s blood test should be admitted into evidence because the test was corroborated by a hospital blood test that showed his blood-alcohol content was 0.12 percent, well above the legal limit of 0.08.

Weeks before his trial was supposed to start in 2001, Russell fled the country and was later placed on the U.S. Marshals Most Wanted List. Police tracked him down in Ireland in 2005, and he was later extradited to the United States.

Russell faces a maximum sentence of life in prison and a $50,000 penalty on each count of vehicular homicide and 10 years in prison and $20,000 on each assault charge.

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