Ricky Allen Riffe, far right, talks with his lawyer John Crowley as the defense team sorts through questionnaires filled out by scores of prospective jurors during a recess in Riffe’s murder trial.
by Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – Judge Richard Brosey is hoping a jury can be selected by noon tomorrow, so opening statements can be made in a Lewis County double murder trial some have waited almost 28 years to begin.
Ricky Allen Riffe, 54, was wearing street clothes in court today, instead of the jail garb and shackles he’s worn in each court appearance since his arrest in July of last year.
The 54-year-old former Lewis County resident who relocated to Alaska in 1987 is charged in the abduction and shotgun deaths in December 1985 of an elderly Ethel couple, Ed and Wilhelmina Maurin.
Ed and Minnie Maurin
At the Lewis County courthouse in Chehalis, scores of potential jurors spent the day undergoing questioning so lawyers can pare down the large group to a panel of 12.
Presiding in the large courtroom on the fourth floor, Brosey asked for a show of hands of any who know or are acquainted with the attorneys, the defendant, and the individuals on the lengthy list of witnesses expected to testify.
When he asked who among the 131 citizens couldn’t possibly serve for the entire time in a trial that could go as long as six weeks, most in the room raised their hands. Nearly half the room was excused after individual questioning about the hardship it would cause.
Riffe is charged with two counts each of first-degree murder, first-degree kidnapping and first-degree robbery, as well as one count of burglary.
Numerous aggravating circumstances are alleged including particularly vulnerable victims and deliberate cruelty. Ed Maurin was 81 years old, his wife 83.
Prosecutors believe Riffe and his now-deceased brother John Gregory Riffe got into the couple’s home on U.S. Highway 12, uncovered bank records and forced the couple to go with them to their bank in Chehalis to withdraw $8,500 before shooting them in the backs inside their car, according to charging documents. Their bodies were found off a logging road near Adna on Christmas Eve days later.
Most of the rest of today was spent with Lewis County Senior Deputy Prosecutor Will Halstead and defense attorney John Crowley probing the remaining 70 prospective jurors in open court about their ability to be impartial.
Many were excused, mostly as they insisted they’d already made up their minds and could not be fair. Like Sandy Bowen of Onalaska who was in her early 20s when the Maurins were slain.
“I understand you think Ricky Riffe is guilty and should get the death penalty,” Crowley said as he addressed Bowen.
She agreed.
“It changed our town, it’s all we heard for the next 25 years,” Bowen said.
Outside the courtroom, Bowen recalled how many in the small community no longer felt safe, how many learned to shoot guns and became licensed to carry them concealed on their person because there was a killer at large.
“We didn’t know where they were,” she said.
Brosey reminded the potential jurors Riffe has pleaded not guilty and the state has the burden of proving beyond a reasonable doubt the elements of the crimes, and that the jury will have the duty to determine the facts which they will then apply to the law.
Riffe, through his attorney, says he did not do it.
The trial will run 9:30 a.m. until noon and then 1:30 p.m. until 5 p.m. each week day, although the judge has said it’s possible there will be a day or portion of a day it goes into recess.
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter
Read this on the Olympian:
http://www.theolympian.com/2013/10/07/2763213/big-trial-set-but-lawyer-is-elsewhere.html
“John Crowley, who was hired to represent Rick Riffe, the Alaska man accused of killing an elderly Ethel couple in 1985, sent a declaration to the judge and called the prosecutor Monday to notify them that he was in trial in Kitsap County for a child molestation case and would not be able to make the court hearing.”
….
“Prior to every delay, Crowley has made assurances that he was ready to go to trial and that his client wanted the matter “settled” as quickly as possible.”
“Crowley, on his law firm’s website, prides himself for having never “shied away from high-profile, high-stakes cases,” adding that “he has successfully fought for clients whose verdicts would have otherwise been predetermined if left to the court of public opinion.” “