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Judge hears appeal of 2008 murder-for-hire conviction

The Columbian
Published: April 28, 2011, 12:00am

A Clark County judge is hearing testimony this week on the 2008 conviction of a Vancouver man who tried to hire four men to kill his wife.

Dino Constance is appealing his conviction and accusing Prosecutor Tony Golik, who tried Constance’s case as a deputy prosecutor, of prosecutorial misconduct. He’s also alleging that his defense attorney didn’t adequately represent him.

Constance filed his appeal just weeks before the November election for prosecuting attorney, which pitted Golik against Vancouver Senior Assistant City Attorney Brent Boger. Golik won.

Boger had tried to use Constance’s allegations in the appeal to discredit Golik to voters. Constance, through his Seattle attorney, Neil Fox, accuses Golik of, among other things, not disclosing certain information about witnesses during the trial.

Clark County Superior Court Judge Robert Lewis will take up these issues after at least two days of testimony from witnesses who took part in the 2008 trial.

A jury convicted Constance in February 2008 of three counts of solicitation of first-degree murder and one count of solicitation of second-degree assault. He was sentenced to 53 years in prison.

Constance, a former loan officer, was arrested May 7, 2007, after reportedly offering four people, including a cellmate, as much as $10,000 to kill Jean A. Koncos, his wife and the mother of his young son. He reportedly was enraged over their long-simmering custody battle.

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