Trial for triple-murder suspect pushed back to October

Brent Ward Luyster’s triple-murder and attempted jail escape trial — originally set to start April 17 — was pushed back this morning to Oct. 30 after the court determined the defense will not be ready in time.

Vancouver attorney Chuck Buckley, who was appointed to represent Luyster about two weeks ago, said his client’s prior counsel had not started any fact-finding interviews with witnesses. The prosecution said it plans to call 40 witnesses to testify at Luyster’s trial and that there are about 10,000 pages of discovery, or evidence, to review.

Luyster — a 35-year-old known white supremacist — is accused of fatally shooting three people and wounding a fourth July 15 at a Woodland home and trying to escape from the Clark County Jail the night of Feb. 12 through a broken cell window. The alleged attempt was interrupted by a corrections deputy conducting a routine perimeter check of the jail.

Buckley said it appears that Luyster’s previous attorneys, Bob Yoseph and Ed Dunkerly, spent much of their time preparing a case against the death penalty. Luyster is charged with three counts of aggravated first-degree murder; aggravated murder is the only charge in Washington that carries the possibility of capital punishment.

Both attorneys withdrew as Luyster’s counsel during arraignment March 6 after Superior Court Judge Robert Lewis ruled only one could stay on, in light of the Clark County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office’s decision not to pursue the death penalty.

Buckley told the court that he believes he will be ready to go by the October trial date.

Luyster objected to the delay.

However, Lewis told Luyster that he has to balance his right to a speedy trial with effective assistance of counsel. Even if Luyster retained his last attorneys, Lewis said they wouldn’t have been ready to go to trial this spring or summer, based on the lack of witness interviews.

Luyster has entered not-guilty pleas to three counts of aggravated first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, first- and second-degree unlawful possession of a firearm, possession of a weapon by a jail inmate, first-degree malicious mischief and attempted second-degree escape.