PORT ANGELES — Two high-profile Clallam County court hearings have been pushed back.
Attorneys will argue this week that a man convicted of raping and murdering a 15-year-old girl should get a new trial.
And the three-week trial of a man accused of high-level drug dealing was moved from later this month to March.
Covarrubias hearing
Attorneys for Robert Gene Covarrubias, 26, are expected to argue at a hearing Thursday that the trial that led to Covarrubias’ conviction was flawed partly because Clallam County Prosecuting Attorney Deborah Kelly did not disclose the full criminal history of some witnesses.
The hearing has been postponed several times and Covarrubias, who has maintained his innocence, has begun an appeal in state courts.
Both sides have agreed that the witnesses were not likely vital to the case, but Covarrubias’ attorney, public defender Ralph Anderson, said that the issue of disclosure, and other issues, tainted the trial.
Covarrubias, 26, was convicted of first-degree murder in April for following 15-year-old Melissa Leigh Carter from a party at the Chinook Motel on Dec. 23, 2004, and raping and strangling her off the Waterfront Trail east of downtown Port Angeles.
Carter’s body was found the day after Christmas.
Covarrubias was found guilty by a Clallam County jury and later sentenced to more than 34 years in prison.
Barnes trial reset
Last month the two-week jury trial of Bernard Gilbert “Pete” Barnes, 53, was rescheduled to begin March 19.
Barnes is accused of being a major cocaine supplier in the Port Angeles area until his arrest.
He is accused of providing cocaine to local dealers and allowing them to pay him back as they sold the cocaine to their customers.
The trial had previously been set for three weeks and was slated to begin Oct. 23.
It had been reset from May 8 before that.
Barnes was charged in December 2004.
He had been accused of conspiring with a former cell mate to burn down the $475,000 house of a man Barnes may have suspected of informing police of his alleged drug dealing.
However, those charges were dismissed following the resignation of a Clallam County sheriff’s sergeant, who had been accused of mishandling evidence.
