PORT ANGELES — The state Supreme Court has reinstated the 2009 conviction of Aaron A. Hahn, an Oregon man who was found guilty of trying to hire someone to kill his former teenage girlfriend from Sequim.
The conviction of solicitation of first-degree murder was overturned by the state Court of Appeals on a legal technicality last August.
But the state’s high court reversed the Court of Appeals ruling Thursday.
Hahn, 32, of Gresham, Ore., has the right to ask the Supreme Court to reconsider its ruling.
No new trial in Clallam Superior Court
The court decision means Hahn will serve out the remainder of his 19-year prison sentence and will not be granted a new trial in Clallam County Superior Court.
“It’s a win for Clallam County as a whole,” said Clallam County Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Brian Wendt, an appellate lawyer who wrote the briefs in the Hahn case.
“We’re pleased. For a host of reasons, this was a hard case,” Wendt said.
“We’re happy that the county will not have to incur the added expense to retry it and also to save the victim the difficulty of having to take the stand again.”
The Court of Appeals said it reversed the conviction because Clallam County Superior Court Judge George L. Wood denied defense attorney Ralph Anderson’s request that a lesser offense of fourth-degree assault be included in the jury instructions.
Wendt said the appeals court “took certain statements Hahn made but removed them from their appropriate context.”
The Supreme Court said the jury could not have found Hahn guilty of simple assault.
“The recorded conversation transcripts can be reasonably read in context as only a solicitation to kill [the victim],” the Supreme Court ruled.
“Although the Court of Appeals is correct that the term ‘disappear’ could have non-homicidal meaning, the inferential leap to mere fourth-degree assault is too great even when the evidence is interpreted in Hahn’s favor.”
Other arguments
Hahn’s defense presented other arguments that the Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court did not consider.
Hahn is listed on the inmate roster of Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla.
Sequim police arranged a false meeting between Hahn and the victim, then 17, to arrest him in the small southwest Washington city of Castle Rock in March 2008.
Hahn was charged in Clallam County with four counts of third-degree child rape, sexual exploitation of a minor, possession of child pornography and stalking.
The girl — who is not identified because she was a juvenile when the crimes occurred — told investigators she began a three-year dating relationship with Hahn when she was 14 and he was about 25.
Court documents alleged that Hahn threatened the girl after she broke up with him.
Hahn eventually pleaded guilty to one count of sexual exploitation of a minor as part of a plea deal for the sex crimes.
Solicitation of murder
A fellow inmate in the Clallam County jail told police that while in custody, Hahn asked him to help find a person to kill the girl before his trial.
The witness, Norman Livengood, agreed to wear a microphone for recorded conversations with Hahn.
Livengood provided Hahn with a phone number to an undercover State Patrol detective, who pretended to be a hit man named Miguel.
Hahn told the undercover cop that he wanted the girl to “disappear,” court documents said.
The recorded conversations led to the solicitation-of-murder charge.
Hahn was convicted in October 2009 in a case tried by Clallam County Prosecuting Attorney Deb Kelly.
Port Angeles attorney Ralph Anderson defended Hahn at trial.
Jodi Backlund of Olympia handled Hahn’s defense on appeal.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
