Bail was set at $1 million Wednesday for the suspect in the 1994 rape and strangulation death of a Vancouver woman.
Richard Eugene Knapp, 57, of Fairview, Ore., appeared Wednesday in Clark County Superior Court on suspicion of first- and second-degree murder with sexual motivation. Judge Robert A. Lewis set bail and ordered that Knapp be unshackled during future court hearings.
Earlier in the day, Knapp’s defense attorney, Edward LeRoy Dunkerly, objected to his client being photographed by news media while he was wearing shackles. The hearing was stopped and set aside until later to address those concerns.
Defendants typically appear in shackles at first court appearances. Senior Deputy Prosecuting Attorney James Smith asked that Knapp remain shackled due to the nature of the alleged crimes and called a sheriff’s deputy to testify about why they’re used.
But Lewis said that requiring Knapp to wear shackles without more specific justification would be a violation of due process, citing precedent from the state Court of Appeals.
“I simply don’t have the information that would allow me to make such a finding,” Lewis said.
Knapp’s handcuffs and leg chains were removed for the remainder of the hearing. Once they were removed, he rubbed both of his wrists.
Knapp wore headphones to help him hear and did not speak in court Wednesday. Dunkerly helped him place the headphones before he was unshackled.
“See that. See that. Look at these guys,” Dunkerly said while looking at a TV camera and helping his client.
Knapp was arrested Sunday near his home. He was linked to the cold case based on DNA testing.
Audrey Hoellein, 26, also known as Audrey Frasier, was found dead in her bed at the Family Tree Apartments in the 8000 block of East Fourth Plain Boulevard on July 17, 1994, according to The Columbian’s archives. An autopsy concluded that she had been raped and strangled, according to court documents.
According to a probable cause affidavit, officers who responded to Hoellein’s apartment the night she was found collected a variety of DNA evidence, which was used during the initial investigation to develop several suspects. All of the suspects later were eliminated as being the source of the DNA, however.
Last year, Vancouver Police enlisted the help of a genetic testing company to develop an improved profile of the suspected killer. In October, the company also provided a genealogy report. The DNA was compared with a member of Knapp’s family who had pointed police toward him, detectives said. Knapp was known to live in Clark County around the time of Frasier’s death.
Following several months of surveillance, investigators collected DNA from a cigarette butt Knapp had tossed away at work, Detective Dustin Goudschaal said. The new evidence was sent to the Washington State Crime Lab, which found that it matched the crime scene DNA.
