PORT ANGELES — After evidentiary hearings for Darold Stenson of Sequim stretched nearly a week longer than expected, attorneys will have about three weeks to submit their final arguments by brief.
The fact finding hearings under Judge Ken Williams will result in his recommendation to the state Supreme Court on whether a retrial is in order for Stenson, who is fighting a death sentence after his 1994 conviction for the murders of his wife, Denise Stenson, and his business partner, Frank Hoerner, the year before.
The attorneys representing Stenson, 57, have argued that a photograph showing then-Detective Sgt. Monty Martin of the Clallam County Sheriff’s Office wearing Stenson’s blood-stained pants could point to possible evidence contamination — and that the photograph was not properly handed over to defense attorneys.
Filed by brief
Final arguments will be submitted by brief and must be filed with the court by April 7, both Prosecuting Attorney Deb Kelly and Stenson’s attorney Sheryl McCloud said.
Williams is set to deliver a preliminary decision by April 15, which won’t be officially filed with the court, but will give time for objections from either side.
An April 16 hearing will be held to hear any of those objections and for Williams to rule on them.
His final opinion will then be finished and submitted by April 20.
The Clallam County prosecuting attorney at the time of the murders, David Bruneau, testified Tuesday that he was aware of the detective wearing Stenson’s jeans before the trial, but he said he didn’t know of a photo documenting it.
The hearing was originally expected to end last Friday.
Both Kelly and McCloud called the hearing “thorough.”
“It was a lot longer and more complicated than we anticipated,” McCloud said.
“But Judge Williams was being very conscientious.”
Kelly said part of the reason the hearings lasted longer than expected was because of the witnesses.
“Lawyers do not make good witnesses — and we had a lot of lawyers who were witnesses in these hearings,” she said.
“I think even Ms. McCloud can agree on that.”
To Kelly’s comment McCloud responded with two enthusiastic thumbs up.
The state Supreme Court has not set a of deadline for its decision.
“As far as their decision, we simply don’t know,” Kelly said.
“This is just the fact-finding that was sent down to this level and then the high court will decide one way or another.”
In the photo Martin, who is now staff sergeant for the sheriff’s office, wore the jeans at the request of a contracted forensic examiner to see whether the blood could have gotten on them from Stenson kneeling by the victims.
In testimony in the Callam County courtroom Monday, Stenson said he did not fire the gun that killed the two victims.
The photograph is of significance, say Stenson’s lawyers — and is the focus of a hearing to determine whether Stenson should get a new trial — because it shows the jeans’ front right pocket turned inside out and Martin not wearing gloves.
The pants were sent to the FBI within a week after Martin wore them.
A gun-shot residue test done then showed four microscopic particles, of the type emitted when a gun is discharged, in the same pocket seen exposed in the photo.
Stenson’s attorneys are arguing that the picture sheds enough doubt on whether the gunshot residue came from Stenson to justify a new trial.
Stenson was scheduled to be executed by lethal injection in December 2008 at the state prison in Walla Walla. Separate stays of execution — one in Clallam County and one in U.S. District Court — were granted in late November 2008.
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Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at paige.dickerson@peninsuladaily news.com.
