PORT ANGELES — Robert Gene Covarrubias pleaded guilty Thursday to first-degree murder with sexual motivation for the 2004 death of 15-year-old Melissa Leigh Carter.
Defense attorney Ralph Anderson said he expects his 28-year-old client to make a statement at his sentencing, which is scheduled for Wednesday at 9 a.m.
In a written statement to Judge George L. Wood filed Thursday in Clallam County Superior Court, Covarrubias said: “On December 24, 2004, in Clallam County, WA., I had sex with Melissa Carter against her will, after which I killed her.”
Because Covrrubias is pleading to sexual motivation, his original sentence of 34 ½ years becomes the minimum he will receive Wednesday.
It also means that a sentencing review board must approve his release upon the end of his sentence.
If he didn’t confess, the maximum sentence Covarrubias would have received would have been 34 ½ years’ imprisonment.
“I’m just happy he has changed his mind and has accepted responsibility,” said Clallam County Prosecuting Attorney Deb Kelly, adding that she was surprised by the confession.
Lawyers were taken aback by Covarrubias’ change of heart.
He maintained his innocence for 4 ½ years before making a taped confession to Port Angeles Police Detective Sgt. Eric Kovatch on July 15.
Covarrubias wrote “INNOCENT” with a jail laundry marker on the back of a striped inmate jumpsuit in April 2006, when he was originally sentenced to 34 ½ years for first-degree murder.
Kelly said the confession was “highly unusual.”
“Only he knows his motivation for doing so,” she said.
The original murder conviction was thrown out by the state Court of Appeals on Jan. 6 because of errors in the 2006 trial.
A second trial was scheduled to begin Sept. 21.
“If he would have consulted me, he would have had a good shot at trial,” Anderson said.
Two or three alternate suspects may have changed the outcome, Anderson said. It would have been Anderson’s 20th murder trial in a career that spans 32 years.
“I’ve never seen anything like this — ever,” Anderson said.
“No one — not the police, not Deb Kelly, not me — totally understand it, other than it’s Rob’s decision. He made it for reasons of his own.”
Anderson found out about his client’s 180-degree turnaround in a July 10 letter last Friday.
Covarrubias confessed on one of the rare days that Anderson was working in Kitsap County.
“I thought he had gone crazy,” Anderson said.
But after further conversations with Covarrubias, Anderson is convinced his client knew what he was doing.
“He’s not crazy; he’s not stupid,” Anderson said.
“My marching orders come from my client.”
Carter’s body was found Dec. 26, 2004, in a brushy hollow above the Olympic Discovery Trail just east of the Red Lion Hotel.
She had vanished three days earlier after attending a party at the now-condemned Chinook Motel.
Covarrubias, who had already spent several years in prison for illegal drug sales, burglary and theft, was brought back to Port Angeles after serving time on his first 2006 murder conviction in New Hampshire.
He is being held in the Clallam County jail on $1 million bail.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
