The Associated Press
SEATTLE — After prosecutors told jurors Tuesday that the father of the teenager who fatally shot four classmates repeatedly lied on forms to illegally purchase firearms, his lawyer said he was never told he was prohibited from having guns.
Raymond Fryberg is charged with illegally owning the handgun his son, Jaylen, used at Marysville-Pilchuck High School to kill his friends.
Prosecutors say Fryberg was the subject of a 2002 domestic-violence protection order, making it illegal for him to have that handgun and nine rifles found in his possession.
Fryberg’s lawyer, John Henry Browne, said neither his client nor the government knew the order existed.
He listed a dozen times when law enforcement conducted background checks on Fryberg and gave him the OK.
Browne also raised a conflict-of-interest claim about a tribal police officer.
Fryberg’s former girlfriend, Jamie Gobin, received a temporary protection order from the Tulalip Tribal Court on Aug. 19, 2002, and hearings were set first for Aug. 27 and then for Sept. 10 that year to consider whether to make the order permanent, according to testimony.
Fryberg wasn’t at the hearing where the order was made permanent because he had not been served with notice of it, Browne said.
Browne said Officer Jesus Echevarria, who claimed he served Fryberg with notice, is married to Gobin’s sister.
