PORT ANGELES — Double-murderer Darold Stenson’s plea for a retrial has once again been kicked back to Clallam County Superior Court.
The state Supreme Court has asked Clallam County Judge Ken Williams to conclude by Jan. 21 whether the prosecution suppressed evidence during the former Sequim man’s 1994 trial.
Stenson, 58, was found guilty of shooting his 28-year-old wife, Denise, and his 33-year-old business partner, Frank Hoerner, to death on his bird farm southwest of Sequim in 1993. He is in prison in Walla Walla.
The evidence in question is the same photograph that was the focus of an eight-day hearing in Port Angeles last March.
In the photo, discovered by Stenson’s legal team in 2009, the lead investigator in the case is seen wearing the death row inmate’s blood-stained jeans.
The investigator donned the jeans at the request of a blood-spatter expert who thought it would help determine whether Stenson got blood on his pants by kneeling by the victims or attacking them.
Stenson’s lawyers argued that the investigator contaminated the evidence since he was not wearing gloves and because a front pocket can be seen turned inside-out.
The FBI, in that same pocket, found gunshot residue after the photo was taken.
Williams, who presided over the trial, concluded in April that the gunshot residue should not have been used as evidence due to the possibility of contamination.
But he also found that the exclusion of that evidence “would not have probably changed the outcome of the trial.”
Williams sent his findings to the Supreme Court — which requested that the hearing be held in the county’s Superior Court — to make a final determination on whether Stenson should have a retrial.
Clallam County Prosecuting Attorney Deb Kelly said the state high court is now asking the judge to be more specific by stating whether the photo was suppressed by the prosecution and whether that affected his ability to have a fair trial.
Kelly is one of the two attorneys representing the state during Stenson’s fight for a new trial.
In September, Williams also ordered a bullet from the crime scene to be tested for DNA.
The results have not been announced, Kelly said.
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
