Judge admits evidence in lethal wreck

Associated Press

COLFAX — A Whitman County judge has partially declined to exclude blood alcohol test evidence taken from a Washington State University student involved in a collision that killed three classmates.

Frederick Russell’s lawyers challenged the blood test on two fronts, arguing that the Washington State Patrol trooper who took the samples improperly administered the warrant to do so, and that the trooper, by taking the blood sample in Idaho, was acting outside of his authority.

Whitman County Superior Court Judge David Frazier on Thursday decided against dismissing blood test evidence on the basis of the trooper not reading the warrant.

But he must still decide if Trooper Michael Murphy could legally take blood from the defendant in an Idaho hospital, so the evidence might still be excluded from the trial.

Russell, 22, is charged in Whitman County Superior Court with three counts of vehicular homicide in the June 4 accident, which took place on Highway 270, which connects Pullman and Moscow, Idaho.

The three students killed were among seven people returning to Pullman from a movie in Moscow. The State Patrol said a vehicle driven by Russell attempted to pass in a no-passing zone while traveling toward Moscow, triggering the four-vehicle crash.

Russell suffered only minor injuries.

Russell also faces three charges of vehicular assault in connection with injuries suffered by three other people.

Russell’s blood alcohol test, taken at Moscow’s Gritman Memorial Hospital more than two hours after the accident, registered at .12 percent, well above Washington state’s legal intoxication threshhold of .08 percent.

Murphy testified Thursday that he read Russell his rights and then read him a special evidence warrant advising him that the trooper was taking blood for a vehicular homicide investigation and that Russell had the right to have another party take a sample as well. Murphy said Russell signed the warrant statement.

But Russell, his father, Gregory Russell, and his father’s friend, Ellen Lemley, who were all in the hospital room at the time the blood was drawn, denied hearing Murphy read aloud the special evidence warrant.

"I would have remembered being informed of an alternate test or second test," Frederick Russell testified.

His father, director of the criminal justice program at WSU and a former criminal defense lawyer, said he never heard Murphy read the warrant statement.

Deputy prosecutor Ann Shannon tried to cast doubt on Gregory Russell’s recollection by making him testify he had four beers the night of the accident.

Frazier concluded the trooper did read the statement.

The accident killed Brandon Clements, 22, of Wapato, and passengers Stacey G. Morrow, 21, of Milton and Ryan Sorensen, 21, of Westport.

Frederick Russell has pleaded innocent to all six counts. If convicted, he faces possible life in prison.