Lewis County Sirens.com

Larry Vessey, brother-in-law to defendant Ricky Riffe, tells of gift of cocaine for Christmas.

Updated at 6:51 p.m.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS –  While defendant Ricky Riffe’s wife has died and won’t be able to be questioned in his murder trial, her family and others who knew him in the mid-1980s gave testimony yesterday for the prosecution.

Riffe, 55, is on trial for the December 1985 abduction and shooting deaths of Ed and Minnie Maurin, an elderly couple who lived on U.S. Highway 12 in Ethel. Prosecutors contend Riffe and his now-deceased younger brother from the Mossyrock area are responsible for getting the Maurins to withdraw $8,500 from their bank, killing them with a sawed-off shotgun and then dumping their bodies near Adna. The brothers later moved out of state to Alaska.

Robin Riffe allegedly gave some information to Lewis County detectives in 1991, but by November 1994 when they attempted to contact her again, she had died.

Two of Robin Riffe’s siblings took the witness stand yesterday to talk about Christmas Day in 1985, during a family gathering in Grays Harbor County.

Larry Vessey said he, his brother and Riffe went duck hunting before dinner, and Riffe wore an olive green Army coat.

Under questioning from Lewis County Prosecutor Jonathan Meyer, Vessey said Riffe asked him an unusual question.

“Is there a way you can trace shotgun pellets?” Vessey said his brother-in-law asked him.

It also struck him as out of the ordinary that Riffe, his sister and her three children all wore brand new clothes that day, he testified.

“They were really poor, they never really had a lot of nothing,” he said. “The kids wore hand-me-down clothes. They just had nothing.”

The couple bought presents for everyone that year, he said. Riffe scooped a gift of cocaine from a bag that contained more than his brother-in-law had ever purchased himself, and he had a job, Riffe didn’t, he said.

“He gave me $300 worth of cocaine and said, ‘Merry Christmas’,” Vessey testified.

Tammi Graham thought her sister worked as a waitress, but not steady, she said. She indicated on the witness stand she suspected they may have sold drugs.

On Christmas day, her  sister wore makeup, something she ordinarily didn’t do.

“There was almost a puffiness to her face, like she’d been crying,” Graham said.

Two of Robin Riffe’s now-grown children were asked to offer facts and recollections from the three to four years the couple was together.

M. Shelly Lev, now 37, pointed out on a map where they lived in a three bedroom single wide trailer off U.S. Highway 12 in Silver Creek.

She said the family had three vehicles: a blue Blazer, a “mail Jeep” and creamy gray colored car.

Lev recalled a road trip trip to Disneyland that spring break, in which they had picnics during their travels and slept in their car but stayed in a hotel while there. Her mother and Riffe were still together, but he didn’t go along, she said.

David Giddings, who said he thought he was about 13 years old at the time, remembered Riffe showing him a “sawed off” shotgun in their living room, he said he was making for a truck driver friend

“I almost want to say he was filing on the barrel,” Giddings said. “That’s why he said he was making it.”

In the courtroom, from the witness stand, looking in Riffe’s direction, Giddings said he didn’t see Riffe anywhere. But then he did.

“Oh, now I recognize his crooked nose,” he said.

Vessey had already testified watching Riffe use a hacksaw to cut the barrel off a 12-gauge single shot shotgun at his dad’s place in Forks in September or October.

Graham was asked when she came to learn about the Maurin’s deaths.

It was mid-January when she and her family stopped at Spiffy’s restaurant on the way home from White Pass, she testified.

Two sketches at the cash register stopped her in her tracks, and she exclaimed to her husband, she said, ‘Oh my God Arvid, that looks like Ricky Riffe’.”

Under questioning, Graham said she  believed they were drawings of Ricky Riffe and his brother John Gregory Riffe.

Jurors learned that by the following June, Ricky Riffe and his wife separated; she’d gone to Arizona.

Derrick McMillion of Cinebar is the person whose testimony prosecutors hope will help them show the jury that after the Maurin’s murders, the Riffe brothers moved away to a remote fishing village in Alaska never to return to the area, except for the rare important occasion.

When the sheriff’s office made their arrest last year, they said the Riffe brothers moved to Alaska in 1987, however, jurors have been told John Gregory Riffe began living there in May of 1988 and Ricky Riffe’s residency commenced in July of the following year.

McMillion was asked in court yesterday to point out his cousins in some photos.

One was taken at an anniversary party for Riffe’s parents held in downtown Centralia, around 2006 or 2007, he said.

Under questioning by Lewis County Senior Deputy Prosecutor Will Halstead, McMillion spoke about what happened when they heard police activity and sirens outside.

One of the Riffe brothers walked over to the window to take a look and then other, three or four times, he testified.

“It was kind of strange,” he said. “They seemed kind of concerned with what was going on out there.”

McMillion recalled another time at a relative’s funeral in Olympia when one of them showed up, sat in the front and then left.

“I couldn’t tell which one of the boys it was,” he said.

John Gregory Riffe passed away on June 12 of last year, after charging documents had already been drawn up for him, with the identical allegations as his brother.

The trial in Lewis County Superior Court is in its third week.

More and more time has been spent with the jury sent out of the courtroom while the lawyers and Judge Richard Brosey argue rules of evidence.

Seattle-based defense attorney John Crowley has increasingly complained the prosecution is “dancing down thin-iced roads” by getting witnesses to make comments that ultimately aren’t allowed, but the jury still hears them. He calls it the trickle effect, contending the state’s strategy is to drop enough extra hints the jury will be swayed his client is guilty

One such debate was conducted over the death in Alaska in 1992 of John Gregory Riffe’s wife. While prosecutors wanted a witness to mention it, Judge Brosey barred the comment they sought.

Crowley said it was an accidental death or suicide, although the gossip was she was murdered.

Updated at 7:49 p.m.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS –  Patricia Hull handled some banking matters for the Maurins the same day the elderly couple went missing nearly 28 years ago.

At his request, she gave Ed Maurin an envelope of $100 bills.

The following morning, after hearing the Maurins were missing, her manager at Sterling Savings and Loan in Chehalis called the sheriff’s office to report what they knew.

Hull was among many individuals who took the witness stand this week in Lewis County Superior Court and talked about the Ethel residents whose bodies were subsequently located off a logging road near Adna.

Ed and Minnie Maurin

Hull was the savings supervisor at the bank at the intersection of Market and Park streets. She retired in 1991 after 24 years with the institution.

She recalled the Maurins as congenial customers who came in every month or two.

Eighty-one-year-old Ed Maurin phoned her the morning of Dec. 19, 1985 and asked if they had any money, Hull testified.

She recognized his voice.

“I, joking with him said we had a nickel or two,” she said. “He said he needed a little more than that, he wanted $8,500.”

He wanted it in cash, and she suggested she get him a check instead, according to Hull.

“No, no, he wanted currency,” she said. “They were going to buy a car, and that’s the conversation we had.”

Under questioning by attorneys, Hull explained the bank didn’t have that much cash available, and had to get it from a commercial bank.

When Ed Maurin showed up about 10:30 a.m., the money wasn’t yet there, so she asked him to take a seat to wait, she said.

She suggested he ask his wife Minnie Maurin to come in from the car to have coffee or cookies, Hull said.

“He said no, she wasn’t feeling well,” she said.

Hull said she got the impression he was saying he wanted cash because he was dealing with someone up north who didn’t know him.

“He seemed calm, we joked with him and told him he’d have to come through the drive through to show us the car, and he said he would,” she said.

He said, “You betcha,” she testified.

Ed Maurin said he’d go out and ask his wife to come in while they waited. Subsequently when Hull was ready for him, she stepped out the door to motion he should come in, she said.

She saw their car parked, the door opening, he waved back and then he came inside, she said. The windows were fogged up, she recalled.

After signing the documents, he left.

The trial is in its third week. Former Lewis County resident Ricky A. Riffe, 55, is charged with burglary, kidnapping, robbery and murder in the case. His younger brother John Gregory Riffe was about to be charged as well when he died last year.

Hull was questioned by Lewis County Senior Deputy Prosecutor Will Halstead and defense attorney John Crowley. She, and the jury, were shown documents on the overhead screen in the courtroom.

The bloody bank receipt found in the pocket of Ed Maurin’s trousers showed a balance of $36,035.12.

The bank’s copy of the withdrawal ticket she was given to look at showed a balance of zero.

The zero balance made her think he’d closed out the account, she said. But the paper showing the large balance suggested to her Ed Maurin has asked about a balance on another account, she testified.

Hull told of getting a phone call around 4 p.m. the day before Ed Maurin came in, from a customer asking about making a large withdrawal. The bank was closing, and she wasn’t sure who it was, she testified.

Jurors have already heard how the Maurin’s green 1969 Chrysler was found abandoned the following morning in the parking lot of the Yard Birds shopping center, the keys in the ignition, the front seat covered in blood and how law enforcement searched for the couple for days.

Yesterday, Mike Haunreiter took the stand to describe what he stumbled upon days later on Stearns Hill road outside Adna.

Haunreiter said he worked at the coal mine, they’d gotten off early, had a parking lot party and then he went for a drive on logging roads, to look for deer. It was the morning of Christmas Eve.

Something by the roadside caught his eye, but it wasn’t until his way back down he looked closer, Haunreiter said.

At first he thought it looked like a “Susie doll”, like they’d practiced CPR with in a recent session, he said.

“But a Susie doll doesn’t have a housecoat on,” Haunreiter said.

When he realized he was looking at a dead body he got back in his truck, speeding away in fear, according to Haunreiter. But then he stopped at a house to say he needed to call 911.

Dr. William J. Brady was the pathologist who conducted autopsies late that afternoon and evening at a mortuary in Centralia.

On Ed Maurin he found wounds on the top of his head, like two blows from a heavy object. One shotgun blast in the middle of his upper back below his neck killed him immediately, he described.

His stomach was empty, but Minnie Maurin had eaten fairly recently, he said. The doctor recalled removing three rings from her fingers.

Brady indicated Ed Maurin had a pacemaker, a bit of hypertension and a somewhat enlarged heart, but otherwise was in good health. The same could be said for 83-year-old Minnie Maurin, who suffered from arthritis, but had an excellent heart, according to the doctor.

The blast that killed her entered through her left shoulder and toward her cheek and neck, he said. She too would have died instantly, he said.

Testimony resumes this morning.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – As the third anniversary approaches of the crash that killed three aboard the plane belonging to a Chehalis-based eye clinic, the entryway to the local airport has been named in honor of the pilot, but authorities still aren’t exactly sure what happened.

The Cessna 340A wrecked about 10 minutes into its flight, in the mountains northeast of Morton on Oct. 25, 2010. No one survived.

Perishing were two employees of Pacific Cataract and Laser Institute and their pilot Ken Sabin. He and technician Rod Rinta, 43, both resided in Chehalis. Ophthalmologist Dr. Paul Shenk, 69, was from Woodland.

A probable cause report issued by the National Transportation Safety Board in August indicates it’s most likely the pilot experienced a partial loss of power of the right engine and after incorrectly turning into the failed engine, the plane became uncontrollable. The airplane continued a clockwise descending turn as it dropped off the radar at more than 10,000 feet, according to the report.

The issue with the engine was not determined because examination of the Cessna did not reveal any mechanical malfunctions or failures that would have precluded normal operation, according to the NTSB.

The flight began at the Chehalis-Centralia Airport and was enroute to  Lewiston, Idaho.

Airport Manager Allyn Roe said the question still isn’t answered as to what made Sabin turn into the engine.

“Those reports aren’t ever nice to read,” Roe said. “They will cite pilot error nine out of 10 times.”

Sabin, a member of the Centralia-Chehalis Airport Governing Board, was an experienced pilot with thousands of flight hours who clearly knew not to do that, he said.

“It’s the circumstances you’re given; you may or may not have a chance of getting out of it,” Roe said.

This summer, the entry drive at the south end of the airport was named Ken Sabin Way in his memory. Sabin was retired from Security State Bank and had more than 40 years experience as a pilot.
•••

For background, read:

• The NTSB report, here

• “Bad weather prevents recovery of plane crash victims” from Wednesday Oct. 27, 2010, here

• “Chehalis Cessna’s last transmission: ” ‘We’re losing it’ from Saturday Nov 20 2010, here

A small number of spectators observe proceedings in Lewis County Superior Court, where former Lewis County resident Ricky Riffe is on trial for kidnapping and murder.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – The judge in the Maurin murder trial was informed this afternoon that both prosecutor and defense attorney learned for the first time today, a witness allegedly spoke to Ricky Riffe while he and his now-dead brother were wiping finger prints from the car nearly 28 years ago.

“It’s an obvious surprise,” Riffe’s Seattle-based attorney told the judge.

Lewis County Prosecutor Jonathan Meyer said it was new information from a man already on their witness list.

“Yes, that’s correct, the first time we heard of the conversation was today,” Meyer said.

Ricky Allen Riffe

The trial for Ricky Riffe, 55, is in its third week in Lewis County Superior Court. He is charged with burglary, kidnapping, robbery and  murder in the December 1985 deaths of an elderly Ethel couple, Minnie and Ed Maurin.

Very little, if any, testimony has been about anyone conversing with the suspect.

Jurors have heard numerous witnesses speak of seeing a man at various key places that day, often noting him wearing a dark stocking cap, wearing an Army jacket or carrying a gun. They have heard about heard several sightings of the Maurin’s 1969 Chrysler on Dec. 19, 1985, carrying the couple with a person in the backseat.

Meyer told the jury when the trial began all the blood and DNA evidence came back to match the Maurins and their family. Today, jurors heard from former detective Ross Kenepah that none of the approximately 65 finger prints collected in the case match Riffe.

Meyer said the coming witness said he made small talk with Riffe and his since-deceased younger brother John Gregory Riffe. The brother was about to be charged in the case last year along with the defendant when he died.

“The individual said he was watching the news which had a story and two pictures side by side,” Meyer told the judge.

The witness indicated the person on the left was Rick Riffe who was on the right side of the car, and Greg Riffe said maybe you should close the door, Meyer said.

Crowley told the judge his problem was that based on the early information he was given that the witness would testify to, his team chose not to conduct their own interview with him.

Crowley said he previously understood the witness would talk about seeing a man with a gun when he was first interviewed by police in 1988, and did not identify anyone from any photo montages.

Lewis County Superior Court Judge Brosey indicated the witness couldn’t take the stand until after Riffe’s attorney’s private investigator has had a chance to interview him. Before today ended, the meeting was scheduled for 8 a.m. tomorrow morning.

Prosecutors have said they have as many as 180 witnesses, although exactly how many of them will be called to testify is not clear. So far, about three dozen have taken the witness stand.

It was just last week when another person seeing photos of the Riffes on television after the trial began contacted the prosecutor to say he recognized a picture of John Gregory Riffe.

Ricky Riffe, right, consults with defense team member Richard Davis as the issue of his ex-wife Robin Riffe is discussed in court much of yesterday afternoon

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CHEHALIS – Jurors in the 1985 Maurin homicide case heard yesterday that in 1991, a task force was formed regarding the deaths from several years earlier and a deputy suggested they should try to talk with Robin Riffe. If they could contact her away from her ex-husband Ricky Riffe, they might get some information, jurors were told.

Former Lewis County Sheriff’s Office detective David Neiser testified he phoned to where she was in prison in Arizona, introduced himself and he said needed to talk with her about an old homicide in Lewis County.

“She said, ‘you mean the one where two old people were killed?’ ” Neiser testified.

Did you have other contacts with Robin Riffe? Neiser was asked, to which he replied yes. And the jury was sent out of the room.

Neiser, who worked for the sheriff’s office from 1972 to 2009, had already spoken about his role in the investigation. He interviewed the two victims’ families, but only went to some of the scenes, noting he recalled vividly Minnie Maurin’s body lying on the side of the road.

Much of the information heard in Lewis County Superior Court yesterday regarding the investigation came while the jury was out of the room.

Lewis County Senior Deputy Prosecutor Will Halstead had given a heads up to the court he was going to elicit from the former detective a statement made to him by the now-deceased woman about the case and the detective would testify about taking her for a drive around the county, but wouldn’t be talking about what she did or anything she pointed out.

Defense attorney John Crowley said he wanted to be able to confront the Robin Riffe, but she’s dead so he can’t.

Crowley asserted the actual reason prosecutors wanted the information put before the jury was to make an inference that Ricky Riffe’s ex-wife Robin Riffe must have known something from his client.

Ricky A. Riffe, 55, is charged with burglary, robbery and murder in the case. His younger brother was about to be charged as well when he died last year.

Prosecutors have contended the Riffe brothers are responsible for abducting Ed and Minnie Maurin from their home, forcing them to drive their bank get money and then shooting the elderly couple in their backs, leaving their bodies along a logging road near Adna.

While jurors were out, Judge Richard Brosey asked questions of the attorneys to learn if certain details were relevant, considering anything else Robin Riffe may have told police would not be allowed to come in to trial.

Halstead said it would explain what detectives did next, which jurors would hear about subsequently during the trial.

“It’s how they came onto further information,” Halstead said. “Without that, all these people who pop up in 1991 pop up for no reason at all.”

Brosey wanted to hear for himself first what the detective would say on the stand so potential issues of confrontation or hearsay could be sorted out, Neiser took the witness stand while jurors were still out of the courtroom.

“I want it clearly understood by detective Neiser I don’t want him blurting out anything Robin Riffe said,” Brosey told prosecutors.

Neiser explained how they got Robin Riffe transferred from prison in Arizona to the closer Washington prison for women in Purdy to finish her term.

She was brought to Lewis County, where she went for a ride with detectives he said.

Neiser said he told her they would pretend she was driving and would not stop or turn unless directed by her.

Neiser noted the various points of interest they encountered, such as an area near west end of Lake Mayfield, Perry’s store where there was a telephone booth, a dump site outside of Ethel, Marys Corner where there was a telephone booth, over the freeway at Avery Road and up Highway 603 to Stearns Hill Road in Adna.

Under questioning by Crowley, Neiser told the court:

“She pointed out Perry’s shop and said, that’s where I dropped ’em off,” Neiser said.

Crowley: “Did anyone else in the investigation have knowledge of some fact regarding Perrys Market?”

Neiser: “Other than your client, you mean?”

Crowley: “Yes.”

Neiser: “No.”

The session continued with the lawyers and the judge sorting out what testimony jurors would not be allowed to hear.

Neiser said detectives attempted to contact Robin Riffe again in November 1994 and learned she had died the day before.

The judge ruled that Robin Riffe directing detectives to various locations during the drive was nonverbal communications which would be inadmissible because the defense would not be able to confront her.

The jury of 12 plus their five alternate jurors were brought back into the courtroom.

It was only about 10 minutes later when  Crowley asked for a mistrial. He noted Neiser’s statement about a deputy telling them they should try to talk with Robin Riffe, while away from his client.

Brosey said he was a bit surprised Crowley hadn’t brought it up while he had the opportunity with the jury out of the room. He denied the motion.

As in the case of nearly all court proceedings, the courtroom is open to the public. Proceedings are scheduled from 9:30 a.m. until noon and 1:30 p.m. until 5 p.m. The courtroom is on the fourth floor of the Lewis County Law and Justice Center at Main Street and Chehalis Avenue in Chehalis.