PORT ANGELES — Lawyers for Robert Gene Covarrubias opened his defense Monday by calling a man they said should be suspected of killing Melissa Leigh Carter.
Kelly Banner of Forks told his parents that a female acquaintance had shot herself in the head on the Waterfront Trail — more than a day before Carter’s body was found in the same location — he testified Monday.
Banner testified that he was supposed to be home with his parents on Christmas Eve 2004, but instead spent the night driving around Port Angeles and using methamphetamine until late Christmas morning.
“I fabricated the story,” he said, “something big enough they wouldn’t question.”
Banner said he didn’t learn of Carter’s death until he read about it in the PDN two days later.
He had told the same made-up story to his girlfriend, Banner said.
“She asked me how I knew about it before it had been in the paper,” he testified.
