The evidence is stacked against a double-murder suspect, say prosecutors. Defense calls him a scapegoat

A 43-year-old man charged with two murders on Valentine’s Day used one victim’s phone to call his mother, a prosecutor said Thursday.

Hector Orozco Jr.’s mother is expected to take the witness stand at her son’s trial and talk about the day she got a call — one that was discovered after investigators reviewed Bonnie D. Ross’ phone records.

Deputy Prosecutor Dave Corkrum briefly mentioned the call as he gave jurors “a roadmap” of the evidence that he and Prosecutor Shawn Sant plan to present in the coming weeks.

Corkrum told the Franklin County Superior Court jury it is a complicated case, with multiple victims, multiple crime scenes and multiple witnesses.

But when everything is pieced together, it shows Orozco is responsible for the deaths of Ross and Demetrius A. Graves, along with five other crimes, he said.

Orozco allegedly had DNA on his clothes that matched both Graves and Ross.

Defense attorney Peyman Younesi, in his opening statement, used the theory of a snake and mouse locked up in a room together, and when the mouse is gone 10 minutes later the assumption is it was eaten by the snake instead of it possibly escaping.

In this case, Pasco police immediately assumed his client had a role in the heinous crimes 11 months ago without digging deeper to see if something else might have happened, he said.

“When we completed our investigation, the theory that we had was the complete opposite of the theory that the state had,” said Younesi. “There was certainly a disagreement (with Graves, Gagow and Orozco) ... but there are holes in this case that the state just can’t fill.”

If you don’t hear about something in trial then the evidence is not there, Younesi said, and jurors shouldn’t try to make a connection where one does not exist.

“It may be human nature to be inquisitive, I get that. But there are rules and instructions and strict guidelines” about what is being presented to jurors, he said.

Younesi said everyone who was with Orozco that morning he views as a potential suspect in both killings. Yet detectives turned “a blind eye to the investigation,” and Orozco was “a good scapegoat” because of the crowd he hangs out with and his background, he said.

Orozco caught on cameras

Graves, a 39-year-old transient, was hit in the face and stabbed three times, puncturing his lungs, according to an autopsy.

That attack happened about 3 a.m. Feb. 14 after Orozco, Graves, Shegow Gagow and another person smoked methamphetamine in a shed behind a home between Bonneville and Clark streets.

Gagow, a witness to the fatal stabbing, told officers he had been hit on the head by Orozco and knocked to his knees before he turned his anger on Graves.

Hours later, Ross was ambushed after she returned home from grocery shopping at the nearby Fiesta Foods. The 82-year-old woman was beaten and stabbed inside her West Washington Street home and left to die.

Security cameras from various businesses show Orozco walking south toward Ross’ neighborhood, west of the cable bridge, between the time that Graves was killed and Ross was attacked, said Corkrum.

Orozco was arrested later that afternoon after officers, watching the Rodeway Inn in Pasco, saw him go into a room. He had driven into the motel parking lot in a Toyota Corolla, that investigators discovered belonged to Ross.

They found Anthony Nugent in a room with a face that was “almost beat to a pulp.” His first words to officers were, “Thank God you’re here. You saved my life,” Corkrum said.

Orozco was hiding in the room’s bathroom.

His girlfriend, Mary Gibson, wasn’t aware police were outside her room and had used the phone in the next room over to call 911. She reported that Orozco struck her, breaking her nose.

Witness was screaming

Orozco is charged with first-degree murder for Ross, second-degree murder for Graves, attempted first-degree murder for Gagow and the unlawful imprisonment of Nugent.

His charges also include driving with a suspended license and two counts of fourth-degree assault for Nugent and Gibson.

Pasco Officer Charles Acock testified that he was patrolling the downtown area Feb. 14 when a man waved him down at 3:02 a.m. at Second Avenue and Clark Street near the Union Gospel Mission.

Acock noted that it was raining heavy at the time, eventually turning to snow, and the man appeared to be very distraught as he approached the driver’s side of his patrol car.

“In my report I wrote that he was screaming and yelling and drooling from his mouth, and he was very animated,” Acock said. “He was very hard to understand. I really didn’t know what to think when he contacted me in the middle of the street.”

Acock said he had contact with the man, Gagow, about a month or two before, knew he was Somali and spoke with a heavy accent.

However, that morning the officer believed Gagow was under the influence of drugs.

He understood some phrases — that Gagow said his friend had just been stabbed and a person was chasing him — an he asked fellow officers to search around Third Avenue and Clark, where Gagow indicated the attack had happened.

The officers found nothing, and Acock said he eventually left the area and returned to patrol.

Frantic 911 call

But about 4:10 a.m., he was dispatched to Sixth Avenue and Clark — several blocks over — for reports of someone dead.

Jurors heard Gagow’s frantic 911 call made from another motel near downtown. The dispatcher had trouble understanding Gagow, but was able to figure out that someone had been killed with a knife.

Gagow was audibly crying during the 911 call.

Acock said he again found Gagow in the middle of the street, this time on Sixth, and then looked over near the curb and saw an unresponsive man on the ground.

They placed Gagow and another man in handcuffs just because they weren’t sure what was going on, and then Acock said he walked over to the man and noticed a puddle of blood.

Patrick Heeren and Ricky Micheles, both Pasco firefighter-paramedics, briefly testified about being called out from their stations for an unknown emergency and finding the obviously dead Graves on the street.

This story was originally published January 17, 2019 at 7:53 PM.