Gone is the bushy beard and long hair Ricky Riffe seemed to have begun cultivating once he was convicted last December.
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – Ricky A. Riffe appeared just very briefly in Lewis County Superior Court today, as lawyers prepare for a second trial in two years for the former Mossyrock man.
Riffe, 55, was charged last year with sexually abusing his 9-year-old step-daughter in the mid-1980s, as he awaited trial for the 1985 kidnapping, robbery and shotgun deaths of an elderly Ethel couple.
He was convicted and sent to prison for nearly 103 years.
Defense attorney John Crowley filed a motion asking the trial get moved, saying his client would not face an impartial jury in Lewis County given inflammatory publicity beginning after his arrest in the notorious unsolved old case.
Lewis County Prosecutor Jonathan Meyer told Judge James Lawler this afternoon he opposed the motion, saying the issue is “not ripe.” A legal term, Meyer said, meaning premature.
“You don’t know that until you get your jury pool,” Meyer said.
Crowley told the judge he agreed and the parties concluded the question about a change of venue could be dealt with before, but during the same week as the trial.
The trial is scheduled for the week of Sept. 8.
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter