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 Prosecutors say Fred Russell was drunk, driving 90 mph and attempting to pass other cars on June 4, 2001, as he returned from an Idaho bar on the Moscow-Pullman highway. Russell crashed into three other cars, killing three students and injuring four people.
Killed in the crash were Karen Overacker's son, Brandon Clements, 22; Stacy G. Morrow, 21; and Ryan Sorensen, also 21.
According to the charges, Russell registered a 0.12 blood-alcohol level after the accident, above the legal limit of .08. Russell was charged with three counts each of vehicular manslaughter and vehicular assault. He pleaded not guilty and was released on $5,000 bail – far below the prosecutors' request of $100,000.
In October of 2001, prosecutors say Russell persuaded a friend to drive him to Canada, where he flew to Europe and eventually settled in Dublin, Ireland, under an assumed name. Irish police arrested him in October 2005 and Russell spent the better part of 2006 fighting extradition – a legal battle with uncertain prospects, given the fact that Ireland has routinely refused to turn over alleged criminals to the United States. He lost that battle, however, and left Ireland for the Colfax jail in November 2006.
Now Russell is back in court where his attorney is arguing procedural issues in advance of a trial scheduled for October. Russell's defense attorney, Francisco Duarte, is asking a judge to throw out the results of a blood-alcohol test that showed Russell was drunk at the time of the accident, saying it's crucial to his defense to be able to double-check the blood test. Of course, that is now impossible since the vials of Russell's blood turned up missing in February 2005, even though Whitman County prosecutors twice asked the Washington state crime lab to preserve them.
If convicted, Fred Russell faces a maximum sentence of life in prison and a $50,000 penalty on each count of vehicular homicide and 10 years in prison and $20,000 on each assault charge. But will the prosecution be able to convict without allowing the defense to retest Russell's blood samples? Time will tell. Will time be on Fred Russell's side or will he find out he's just been wasting his time?
What are your thoughts on the Fred Russell case? Do you think the defense should be able to retest blood samples considering Russell was a fugitive for so many years? Do you think Russell made a good choice fleeing the country, or do you think he should have remained in the U.S. and faced charges accordingly? What do you think the outcome of the trial will be? Do you think justice will be served?
We'd like to know what you think about the Fred Russell case, so email us and we'll post your comments on Spokane.net. If you don't have time to write, then feel free to vote in our PulsePoll.
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Poll Results ...
Question:
"Do you think Fred Russell's blood-alcohol test results should be thrown out as evidence or be allowed, even though no vials are available for testing today?"
Results:
Be allowed -- 77.3%
Be thrown out -- 18.2%
Undecided -- 4.5%
Send us your comments ...
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