Two Clark County men whose 1993 rape convictions were vacated on the basis of newly discovered DNA evidence will have to wait until August to find out whether they will go to trial again.
Senior Deputy Prosecutor John Fairgrieve told Superior Court Judge Diane Woolard on Wednesday that if he doesn’t find the sources of the unknown DNA profiles by Aug. 10, he will dismiss charges against Alan G. Northrop and Larry W. Davis.
If he does find other reasons to explain the DNA evidence, Fairgrieve said he’ll move forward to trial.
Fairgrieve is pursuing a theory that the DNA evidence from the victim’s fingernails and pubic area — which recent testing showed are a match with two different, unknown people — could be unrelated to the attack. It could be from family or acquaintances, he said. He contends that because the perpetrators wore gloves and long-sleeve shirts, it’s possible they never left DNA behind.
“It sounds to me like a fairly responsible way to proceed,” Woolard said after hearing that Fairgrieve and the men’s attorney, John Pantazis of Innocence Project Northwest, agreed on the August deadline.
Fairgrieve said he plans to have DNA testing performed on the victim’s son, the homeowner of the house she was cleaning and an acquaintance to see if any of them are matches.
The men were convicted by two separate juries of rape, kidnapping and burglary in a Jan. 11, 1993, home-invasion attack of a housekeeper who was cleaning a home in La Center. She is still alive but has not been involved in the recent proceedings.
Prosecutors in 1993 believed that samples taken from the woman’s fingernails and pubic area would reveal a DNA match with her perpetrators, but couldn’t perform DNA testing back then because of the lack of technology to test small amounts. This year, DNA testing performed at the request of Innocence Project Northwest, which operates in conjunction with University of Washington’s law school, pointed to different assailants.
The results prompted Woolard to vacate the men’s convictions on April 21, meaning prosecutors must now start from scratch.
Davis, now 53, completed his sentence and was released in January. Northrop, now 45, who has been serving his sentence at the Stafford Creek Corrections Center in Aberdeen, was released following the hearing in April.
Woolard set trial for Oct 4., contingent on whether or not Fairgrieve decides to proceed.
