Mistrial declared in former Pasco officer’s murder trial in Spokane

A mistrial was declared Thursday in the Spokane murder case against former Pasco police officer Richard Aguirre.

Judge Maryann Moreno ended the trial after jurors announced that they were unable to reach a verdict in the 1986 killing of Ruby J. Doss.

The jury had deliberated for about 11 hours over two days before informing the judge that it was deadlocked.

Aguirre, 57, did not testify during his seven-day trial in Spokane County Superior Court.

He left the courthouse immediately following the proceedings with his girlfriend, who was tearful. He declined to speak with the media through his attorney John Henry Browne.

He was disappointed not to be acquitted, Browne said of his client’s feelings about the mistrial.

“I always love it when my clients go home,” Browne said.

Prosecutors requested a new trial, and Moreno scheduled it to start on March 7.

“We’re looking forward to the next trial date in March,” said Deputy Prosecutor Stefanie Collins.

Beaten and strangled

Doss, 27, was found dead near Playfair Race Course on Jan. 30, 1986.

She was a prostitute, living in the El Rancho Motel with her daughter and boyfriend at the time of her death.

Collins, in her closing argument, described Doss as a mother, girlfriend and a timid young woman who was embarrassed to be a sex worker.

Doss was disarmed, beaten and strangled, Collins said before showing pictures of Doss’ body against the concrete barrier where it was discovered.

“This is how Richard Aguirre left her; his words, ‘left,’” Collins said, referring to testimony by Aguirre’s friends about statements he made to them.

Aguirre had a lot to lose: a wife he had married just two months prior, his job in the Air Force and a large family that he was very close to, Collins said.

She suggested that he sought out the prostitute “so he could do something with her he couldn’t do with his wife.”

DNA evidence linked Aguirre to the Doss killing in 2015, and he was charged with murder later that year.

Those charges were dropped while investigators waited for more DNA testing, according to court records. Prosecutors refiled charges last year.

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.

This isn’t the first time Aguirre has faced a mistrial.

In 2016 a jury couldn’t reach a verdict in the Franklin County rape and assault case against him that led to his DNA being linked to the Doss case. He was later acquitted of the charges.

DNA testing

Multiple forensic scientists, along with a DNA expert, testified in the recent Spokane County trial to the DNA evidence and how the evolution of DNA science affected the case.

A condom found near the scene had semen in it that matched Aguirre, said Lorraine Heath, a DNA testing expert who worked on the case.

That condom was destroyed during testing in the late 1980s and therefore wasn’t available for further testing to determine if Doss’ DNA was also present.

After Aguirre’s DNA was matched to the case, Heath did further testing on other items found at the crime scene. She found multiple other DNA profiles but none matching Aguirre, a fact Browne said shows Aguirre didn’t kill Doss.

At that time, Heath swabbed the inside of the envelope that had contained the condom from the scene to see if she could develop a DNA profile.

She was able to find DNA and develop two profiles, one for the sperm cells and another for the non-sperm cells. But, at the time in 2017, there wasn’t enough of the non-sperm sample for comparison.

Then in 2018, due to advances in a special type of genotyping that uses a statistics and mathematical algorithm to help compare the DNA profile, Heath was able to get a probability that the sample was a mixture of Doss and Aguirre’s DNA.

Heath found that the non-sperm sample is 8,100 times more likely to be a combination of Doss and Aguirre’s DNA than a combination of Aguirre and another person’s DNA.

Testimony

Several witnesses, including Aguirre’s former co-workers at the Pasco Police Department, testified Aguirre made statements to them about having slept with Doss but her being alive when he left.

One of those people was former Pasco police Officer Ryan Flanagan.

“His words were, ‘I had sex with her, but I didn’t kill the (expletive),’” Flanagan said.

In his own closing argument, Browne told jurors that the state has tried for years to come up with evidence and has found nothing conclusive on many of the things they submitted for DNA. Only the sperm from the condom matched Aguirre, he said.

Spokane police Detective Kip Hollenbeck did a “marvelous job” trying to find more DNA, sending more than 50 items to the lab for testing, but not one piece of evidence other than the condom matched Aguirre, Browne said.

Even the DNA under Doss’ fingernail didn’t match him, he said.

“You can’t be in the fight of your life and not leave your DNA on the other person,” Browne said. “It’s impossible.”

Browne said his client had no reason to kill Doss, as a 19-year-old airman.

Aguirre faces up to life in prison if convicted of the murder.

This story was originally published December 9, 2021 at 7:02 PM.