PORT TOWNSEND — Chronic methamphetamine use, aggressive peer pressure, and a troubled and violent upbringing may have been factors leading Robert Froehlich to allegedly murder Allison Tornensis in Quilcene in 1992, court documents show.
Documents filed last week at the start of Froehlich’s second-degree murder trial in Jefferson County Superior Court — including four psychological evaluations and extensive police interviews — paint a picture of an impressionable youth susceptible to peer pressure and heavy consumption of drugs.
Froehlich, 29, formerly of Quilcene, confessed to the stabbing death of Tornensis, 15, when he turned himself into police in Oregon two years ago.
Froehlich’s lawyer, Gerald Barnhart, is arguing the confession is “unreliable” because of Froehlich’s extensive drug use and lack of corroborating physical evidence.
Froehlich is due back in court Thursday at 3 p.m. when attorneys present their final arguments to Jefferson County Superior Court Judge Thomas Majhan.
It will be Majhan, not a jury, who will decide the verdict after Froehlich waived his right to a jury trial.
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