PORT ANGELES — Too many people have made up their minds about Robert Gene Covarrubias, Port Angeles lawyer Ralph Anderson said Thursday.
So Anderson, Covarrubias court-appointed attorney, will seek a change of venue for his client’s second first-degree murder trial, he said.
Anderson — who also represented Covarrubias, 28, at his first trial — made the pledge in Covarrubias’ weekly status hearing in Clallam County Superior Court, where Judge George L. Wood also is involved in the case a second time.
Wood presided in April 2006 when Covarrubias was convicted of first-degree murder in the death of 15-year-old Melissa Leigh Carter, whose nude body was found along Olympic Discovery Trail in Port Angeles the day after Christmas 2004.
Covarrubias was sentenced to 34 ½ years.
He has pleaded not guilty.
The state Court of Appeals on Jan. 6 ordered a new trial on the basis of errors committed by Wood and county Prosecuting Attorney Deb Kelly during the first trial but said there was enough evidence to convict Covarrubias, 28.
Authorities said Carter was sexually assaulted; Covarrubias said the sex was consensual.
‘Everyone has opinion’
“Pretty much everyone has an opinion on this case,” Anderson said during the hearing.
He also told Wood he expects to interview the jurors who convicted Covarrubias in 2006.
If a change of venue is granted, a jury should be chosen in another county other than Clallam, Jefferson or Kitsap, Anderson said in an interview.
If a change of venue is not granted, “I think we would have a very hard time getting a jury that does not have pre-conceived notions about the guilt or innocence of the defendant,” he said.
“I want a jury panel from somewhere else, and somewhere where the case was not a big deal and wasn’t covered.”
Busing jurors
An alternative also may be picking a jury elsewhere and bussing jurors to Clallam County for the trial, Anderson added.
County Prosecuting Attorney Deb Kelly said Thursday she was reluctant to comment on the case for fear of adding to the chances that Wood would grant the change of venue.
At the hearing, Anderson and Kelly decided to delay discussing the extent of DNA testing that will be required for Covarrubias’ new trial.
“There’s an awful lot of material to go through,” Anderson said.
He and Kelly may have an order for Wood’s signature by Monday, Anderson said.
Anderson said additional DNA tests may be conducted on items including a pair of underwear found at the murder scene and hair found in the underwear.
The hair could be an important part of the case only if a hair follicle is present. The follicle is more viable for DNA testing than the rest of the hair, Anderson said.
Anderson said he also wants DNA tests conducted on blood that was present in the “flophouse” that Covarrubias lived in about a block north of the courthouse.
“Several items were not tested” in the first trial, he said.
A weekly status hearing on the case is 9 a.m. every Thursday.
The trial is scheduled to start by July 7.
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Staff writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-417-3536 or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
