Defense calls retired officers to testify about alternative suspect in Aguirre trial

On January 30, 1986, Officers Tom Sahlberg and his partner, Brad Nave, were working a normal shift when they got called out to a killing near Playfair Race Course.

Sahlberg and Nave frequently patrolled the East Sprague Avenue area that was known for prostitution at the time, so the detectives on scene called out the pair to talk to their contacts in the neighborhood.

They met with two women who were sex workers, whose real names neither officer knew, and described the dead woman.

She was a “slender Black female,” Nave recalled telling them.

The women thought it was likely “Memphis,” later identified as 27-year-old Ruby Doss.

They told the officers Doss had recently snitched on another sex worker, Bridget McCoy, for stealing from a customer. McCoy’s pimp, Robert E. Lee, was angry too, the women said.

The now-retired officers’ testimony was the first for Richard Aguirre’s defense in his bench trial for the killing of Doss. The trial, presided over by Spokane County Superior Court Judge Jeremy Schmidt, is in its third week.

Aguirre’s attorney, Karen Lindholdt, has repeatedly pointed to Lee as an alternative suspect in Doss’ death.

Prosecutors have continually objected over officers’ testimony about the sex workers as hearsay. Hearsay is the report of someone else’s words by a witness.

Prosecutors expect their expert witness to testify next week that a combination of Aguirre’s and Doss’ DNA was found near her body.

Schmidt has ruled that he will not consider the statements for the truth of the matter, but instead to reflect on the investigation, the integrity of which Lindholdt has called into question.

The officers put the statements from the sex workers into their report and assumed the detectives on the case would follow up, they said.

In February 1986, Nave was told by one of the sex workers that Lee and McCoy had been seen at a Zip’s near where Doss was killed later that same night. The woman didn’t see the pair herself, but said someone else had.

McCoy and Lee then left town, Nave was told. He recorded this on blue paper, which meant the information was not for release.

Prosecutors asked the officers if they knew that the customer McCoy allegedly stole from agreed not to press charges and his money was returned to him. The officers said they did not.

Neither Lee nor McCoy are scheduled to testify, according to court documents. Their whereabouts are unknown.

Lee was interviewed by officers months after Doss’ death while in jail on another matter, officers testified earlier in the trial.

The defense is set to call an additional witness Thursday. Aguirre’s trial is scheduled to continue through Tuesday.