PORT ANGELES — Robert Gene Covarrubias will be arraigned May 8 for the murder of Melissa Leigh Carter — almost three years to the day after he was convicted of the crime, Clallam County Superior Court Judge George L. Wood decided Friday.
The second trial of Covarrubias, 28 — who has asserted his innocence since 15-year-old Carter’s death in 2004 — is scheduled to begin by July 7.
He will be in custody in the Clallam County jail after he is processed out of Clallam Bay Corrections Center, which was to take place as son as possible, Prosecuting Attorney Deb Kelly said.
His bail has been set at $1 million.
He had been transferred to Clallam Bay from a prison out of the state where he had begun to serve a 34¬½-year sentence.
Appeals Court decision
Wood set the arraignment date to comply with a Jan. 6 state Court of Appeals decision.
The appeals court unanimously decided that Covarrubias’ first trial, which led to his April 21, 2006 conviction for first-degree murder, was tainted by an unfair trial, and ordered a new one.
The state court said that, although enough evidence existed for a conviction, errors by both the Prosecuting Attorney’s Office and Judge Wood had hurt his chance for a fair trial.
Carter was 15 when she was found raped and strangled in the bushes bordering Olympic Discovery Trail just east of the Port Angeles Red Lion Hotel on Dec. 26, 2004.
She had vanished three days earlier after attending a party at the Chinook Motel about a mile up First Street. Covarrubias was at the same party.
Covarrubias, who listed his address as Port Angeles when he was arrested on investigation of drug charges in Seattle in 2001, had spent several years in prison for illegal drug sales, burglary and theft.
He had been released from prison on Dec. 6, 2004, 17 days before Carter was killed.
‘Innocent’
During the hearing Friday — his first in Clallam County since being sentenced in June, 2006 — Covarrubias wrote the word “innocent” on the back of one of his court papers and brandished it in the sight line of a Peninsula Daily Newsphotographer.
It was reminiscent of Covarrubias scrawling the same word on the back of his jail jumpsuit for Carter’s family to see the day he was sentenced for her death.
“Whether he does it again or not, I will request that the court tell him not to engage in those antics in the courtroom,” Kelly said after Friday’s hearing.
Court errors
The appeals court took Kelly and Wood to task for their actions in Covarrubias’ first trial.
Judge Elaine Houghton said Wood’s errors, including the failure to grant Covarrubias a new trial, and late disclosures of evidence by the prosecuting attorney’s office, impaired Covarrubias’ chance for a fair trial.
“The overall impact of the state’s pattern of delayed disclosure impaired Covarrubias’ ability to both prepare for trial and to receive a fair trial,” Appeals Court Judge Elaine Houghton said.
“The trial court based its decision not to grant a new trial on untenable grounds.”
Kelly said it’s a “tragedy” that the case must be tried again.
“In retrospect, there are things I would have done differently, and that’s the end of it. That’s all I’ll say.”
Wood said he did not believe it was necessary to grant a new trial.
“We got through a trial, and made the decision not to try another one,” he said.
“I don’t know why they put ‘untenable.’ I’m not going to react on why they said that because the case is ongoing.”
Houghton said certain evidence that was not presented at Covarrubias’ trial was “particularly relevant to Covarrubias’ guilt or innocence.”
It included a statement by Carter’s boyfriend, Travis Criswell, about “wanting to remove Carter from the world;” autopsy notes indicating that Carter did not have a neck injury; autopsy notes that indicated her body had been dragged on asphalt; and the disclosure that the Prosecuting Attorney’s Office did not do DNA testing on hair found on Carter’s body.
The results of DNA tests were key to Covarrubias’ conviction.
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Staff writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-417-3536 or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com
