OLYMPIA — The state Supreme Court recently barred the door for a Seattle man who hopes to overturn his first-degree murder conviction connected to the 2006 shooting of a University of Puget Sound student outside a Brier house party.
Noel Caldellis had alleged his trial nearly a decade ago was flawed by ineffective assistance from his lawyer, flawed jury instructions and allegations that the judge and others snoozed during testimony.
Caldellis, who is serving 34 years in prison, asked for a new trial or in the alternative, a special fact-finding hearing to explore his claims about people napping when they should have been listening to testimony.
The court on Dec. 15 ruled that Caldellis’ jury was appropriately instructed on the law and that he had failed to show sufficient evidence that jurors or the judge had slept during the trial. The court was presented affidavits from those accused, who deny that happened.
The nine-justice panel dismissed the personal restraint petition as “meritless.”
A Snohomish County jury in 2007 convicted the defendant of killing Jay Clements, 21. Jurors found that Caldellis, then 20, acted with “extreme indifference to human life” when he fired a pistol into a crowd, striking Clements twice.
Caldellis went to the party to watch somebody fight. As soon as his group arrived, a brawl broke out.
Caldellis told police he fired his gun twice in the air to disperse the crowd and to protect his friends. The next two shots went into the crowd, killing Clements.
Jurors were told that Clements was attempting to break up the fights when he was shot.
Scott North: 425-339-3431; north@heraldnet.com.
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