PORT ANGELES — The Clallam County Sheriff’s Office and state Department of Corrections have agreed to move alleged double-murderer Darold R. Stenson from the county jail to the state prison in Shelton, lawyers announced in court Wednesday.
The agreement is contingent on a signature from Sheriff Bill Benedict, who was out of the area Wednesday.
Undersheriff Ron Peregrin said the county and the Department of Corrections will split the $600-per-day cost of moving the former death row inmate to the Washington Corrections Center and back to Port Angeles for pretrial hearings.
“Once we execute the agreement, then we’ll just make arrangements for convenient transport down there,” Peregrin said after the hearing.
Stenson, 59, is charged with two counts of aggravated murder in the shooting deaths of his wife, Denise, and business partner, Frank Hoerner, at Stenson’s bird farm southwest of Sequim in 1993.
The 1994 conviction was overturned by the state Supreme Court in an 8-1 ruling in May.
The court found that Stenson’s rights were violated when the state in Clallam County did not provide photographs and FBI lab notes to his lawyers until 2009.
The U.S. Supreme Court announced Oct. 13 that it would not hear an appeal.
Clallam County Prosecuting Attorney Deb Kelly recharged Stenson with two counts of first-degree aggravated murder in July and intends to seek the death penalty again.
Stenson, who has maintained his innocence, asked to be moved to the 1,268-man state holding facility in Shelton because his medical needs are not being met in the county jail.
Defense attorney Sherilyn Peterson wrote in an Oct. 5 motion for transfer that Stenson has suffered four heart attacks, has Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, acid reflux, gout and a hernia.
Peterson said the jail does not allow Stenson to use his medications when he needs them and that his health has deteriorated since he was transferred from the state penitentiary in Walla Walla on July 19.
Stenson is being held without bail.
Clallam County Chief Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Mark Nichols, who was filling in for Kelly on Wednesday, presented Superior Court Judge Ken Williams with a copy of an unsigned contract for Stenson’s housing and care.
“I have every reason to believe that we will wind up executing this agreement, likely on or about Oct. 31,” Nichols said.
Nichols said he expects Stenson will be transferred “within a day or two” of the contract being signed by the sheriff.
Peterson said the agreement is “perfectly acceptable” to the defense.
Before Stenson entered the courtroom, his lawyers asked Williams to prohibit a Peninsula Daily News photographer from taking photographs of Stenson wearing jail-issue clothing.
Nichols said there already are photographs of Stenson “in wide circulation in his pretrial garb.
“I think that ship has sailed,” he said.
Williams denied the motion, saying a photograph of Stenson wearing an orange jumpsuit “does not lead to a great deal of prejudice in picking a jury.”
“It is not difficult to find a large body of people who do not read the local media in this community from which to select a jury pool,” Williams said.
Stenson’s next hearing is set for 10 a.m. Nov. 8.
At issue will be Stenson’s wardrobe and, should the sheriff and state Corrections fail to come to terms, his housing.
Peregrin said Stenson’s housing situation is unusual because he is no longer a sentenced prisoner.
Therefore, the standard compact between the county and Corrections for swapping inmates does not apply.
“All we were saying was we wanted to split those [transportation] costs with DOC [Department of Corrections] on a 50-50 basis, which we felt was fair,” Peregrin said.
Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5072, or at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
