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 Photo John Froschauer / The Associated Press Prosecuting attorney Lana Weinmann holds up a half-gallon of vodka during closing arguments Monday at the Hall of Justice. |
Russell jury begins deliberations
Tuesday, November 6, 2007 7:09 AM PST
By Stephanie Mathieu
Printable version
E-mail this articleDefense attorneys compared Frederick Russell to the wrongfully accused hero in the 1993 movie "The Fugitive" during closing arguments Monday in his vehicular homicide trial. The case later was handed to the jury.
Those jurors had not reached a verdict after four hours Monday and will continue deliberations today.
At 5 p.m., the 12 members of the jury asked the judge why they couldn't view written statements made by two witnesses -- the woman first side-swiped by Russell's Blazer and the man Russell passed seconds before the crash. Whitman County Judge David Frazier told them they could only see evidence admitted during the trial.
Russell, 28, is charged with three counts of vehicular homicide and three counts of vehicular assault in a four-car crash on State Route 270 near the Washington-Idaho boarder. His high-profile trial was moved to Cowlitz County because of heavy pretrial publicity.
On Monday morning, Russell's attorney Francisco Duarte told jurors Russell skipped bail and fled to Ireland in 2001 because he feared for his life and the lives of his family members after media coverage of the collision spread. Much like Harrison Ford's character in "The Fugitive," Russell was innocent and on the run, Duarte said.
Ford's character spends the movie escaping police after being wrongfully convicted of slaying his wife. All the while, he searches for the one-armed man who really killed her.
Duarte also said police on the case wanted to arrest Russell even before beginning the investigation. Police failed to investigate key facts, and Russell became "public enemy No. 1" after news of the Eastern Washington tragedy reached the media, Duarte said.
The defense attorney instead blamed the collision on Robert Hart, a key witness who testified earlier in the trial. Hart said Russell drove erratically behind him, flashed his high-beam lights, passed at 90 mph and zigzagged along the opposite shoulder and lane before hitting the first car.
"Why did (Hart) fabricate this fantastic story about what happened that night?" Duarte said. Hart left the collision scene before police arrived and waited until later that evening to tell police he was a witness.
But prosecutors told jurors that this case is nothing like Hollywood, and Hart did not stop in the road, as defense attorneys implied.
"Blaming Robert Hart is the last refuge of a guilty man," prosecuting attorney Lana Weinmann said. "This is the real world, and there is no one-armed man."
The defense said Hart's story should raise reasonable doubt because Hart had trouble recalling exactly how close Russell's SUV followed his Subaru Brat and precisely how many seconds it took Russell to pass him.
Witnesses also must consider testimony that Russell did not appear drunk the night of the collision and evidence that the manager of the state crime lab storing Russell’s blood-alcohol samples was incompetent.
But jurors also must consider the report that crime lab results showed Russell’s blood-alcohol level was .12 percent within three hours of the collision and that a number of witnesses said Russell was over the center line at the time of the wreck. The legal blood-alcohol level for driving is .08.
"He started out with a magnum of vodka, and bought the mixers for that magnum of vodka," Weinmann said, holding a half-gallon jug of alcohol in front of jurors.
She placed the vodka down on a table and six clear shot glasses alongside it. "In two hours, that magnum was gone. Six people drained it in two hours. He had a drink with him the entire time."
After he drank in Moscow, Russell and a friend went to a Pullman bar, Weinmann said. He had at least two beers in less than an hour before heading back to Moscow to drop off his friend.
"He chose to get in his car and head down that highway, and it should be no surprise to you that we're here today," Weinmann said.
Killed in the June 4, 2001 collision were WSU seniors Brandon Clements, 22, of Wapato; Stacy Morrow, 21, of Milton; and Ryan Sorensen, 21, of Westport.
The wreck broke Kara Eichelsdoerfer's collarbone, pelvis, vertebrae and several ribs, and caused a concussion that impaired her ability to function normally for at least a year. It crushed Sameer Ranade's pelvis and ribs and ruptured his aorta, the main artery that carries blood from the heart.
John "Matt" Wagner suffered blurred vision, an injured spine, bruised organs and a broken collarbone and ribs.
All six students were in Clements' 1978 Cadillac and traveling home after watching "Shrek" at a movie theater in Moscow, Idaho.
Russell, then 21, was studying criminal justice at WSU and his father was the dean of the criminal justice department. He lived with his father in Pullman.
He skipped town before his trial began, was tracked down in Ireland in 2005 and sent back to the United States in an extradition deal that dropped his bail-jumping charges.
Weinmann told jurors that although Hart, a key witness in the prosecution, did nothing wrong the night of the crash.
"Robert Hart saw this disaster coming and could do nothing to stop it," Weinmann said. "Mr. Hart is not making this up."
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