Ex-Pasco officer’s murder trial begins in 1986 Spokane prostitute’s death

The trial for a former Pasco police officer is set to begin this week in Spokane in a 1986 murder of a woman working as a prostitute.

Richard J. Aguirre, 57, was charged last September with premeditated first-degree murder.

The investigation into her death went cold for 29 years until detectives claimed Aguirre was a match for a DNA profile from a condom found near the murder scene.

It was the second time in five years that formal charges had been brought against Aguirre for the death of Ruby J. Doss.

Doss, 27, was found beaten and strangled in January 1986. She was the first of at least five Spokane women strangled over a 1 1/2-year period.

He was charged in 2015. Then, in December 2017, the case was dropped without prejudice while prosecutors waited for the results of further DNA testing. Then, the charges were refiled in Spokane County Superior Court in September 2020.

Aguirre had worked for the Pasco Police Department for 27 years when he resigned in 2015 after he was charged in Franklin County in an unrelated rape case. He later was acquitted in that case.

Case open for years

Investigators initially tried to link Doss’ killing on Jan. 3, 1986 to serial killer Robert Yates, who pleaded guilty to 13 counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder in Spokane County from 1975 through 1998.

Doss was found dead near 3118 Ferry Ave. Spokane Police Detective Brian Breen, who investigated the crime scene, found where it appeared Doss had sex with someone behind the old Playfair Race Track, near a manure pit.

The detective found shoe-heel impressions that indicated Doss ran more than 250 feet before her attacker struck her in the back of the head with a blunt instrument and strangled Doss, Breen wrote in court records.

Another detective, Nicolas Stanley, found a used condom near where investigators believe the sexual interaction occurred. However, at that time DNA testing was rudimentary.

The case remained open for decades.

Then in 2001, Detective Rick Grabenstein submitted the condom for testing and the results were uploaded into a national DNA database.

On the 29th anniversary of Doss’ death on Jan. 30, 2015, the profile came back as a match to Aguirre.

Stationed in Spokane

Aguirre lived in Spokane with his then-wife and was stationed at Fairchild Air Force Base in the 1980s.

After his arrest for the killing, Aguirre told his sisters he had an encounter with “a girl,” according to a Spokesman-Review story at the time.

That they met at a dance place then went to an industrial area and had sex but he wasn’t sure if the “girl” was Doss.

A lifelong friend, who grew up with Aguirre, told a detective she and Aguirre would go to taverns and strip joints on East Sprague Avenue in 1986 and 1987 and at least one time they contacted or solicited prostitutes, according to court documents cited in a 2015 article.

During the investigation into the alleged rape, investigators discovered about 76,000 pictures and 315 videos on one of Aguirre’s cellphones. Many of those files showed sex acts with men and women, according to court documents.

Some of the people in the videos appear to be experiencing “pain and fear,” and did not seem to be aware they were being recorded, court documents say.

Aguirre was charged with voyeurism based on an incident where he filmed himself with a man at a Spokane Valley Hotel in 2015 but that charge was later dismissed. The man told investigators he had not consented to be filmed during sex.

Shortly after the dismissal of the voyeurism charge, Aguirre was acquitted during his second trial on the rape charge in March 2017. The jury could not reach a verdict at the first trial.

Alibi claim refuted

Aguirre’s attorney, Seattle-based John Henry Browne, known for defending controversial high-profile clients like serial killer Ted Bundy, unsuccessfully motioned to dismiss the murder charge, arguing military records showed Aguirre was in South Korea at the time of Doss death.

Prosecutors showed military records only reflected a reporting period and did not show when Aguirre left Fairchild Air Force Base.

The same argument came up again in recent court filings ahead of the upcoming trial.

Browne also sought dismissal because investigators lost the condom found at the scene during the investigation, which prevented the defense from doing their own testing.

Investigators dismissed the charges in December 2017, to await further DNA testing.

The first-degree murder charge was refiled in September 2020 after prosecutors said they found Aguirre’s DNA on the wrapper that held the condom. Both times, Aguirre pleaded not guilty to the charge.

This story was originally published November 29, 2021 at 10:23 AM.