Defense: Ex-Pasco officer was overseas at time of Spokane murder

Richard J. Aguirre was stationed in South Korea when a prostitute was killed in Spokane in 1986, according to his attorney.

A motion filed Friday asks for Aguirre’s murder case to be dropped because the evidence, backed by certified military records, gives him a “complete alibi defense.”

“Mr. Aguirre could not have murdered the victim because he was not even on the same continent when the crime occurred,” John Henry Browne, a Seattle lawyer, wrote in the motion. “… The state’s notion that Mr. Aguirre is the perpetrator of this heinous crime is a factual impossibility.”

Ruby J. Doss, 27, was beaten and strangled to death on Jan. 30, 1986.

The case went cold until the 29th anniversary, when a Spokane detective learned that Aguirre was a match for a DNA profile from a condom found near Doss’ crime scene.

Aguirre, a former Pasco police officer, was charged last June and has been locked up since then on $1 million bail.

His trial on one count of first-degree murder with sexual motivation is scheduled June 20 in Spokane County Superior Court.

Browne, who was not available for comment Friday, wrote that it shouldn’t even get to that point because the “undisputed facts cannot legally support a judgment of guilt.”

Spokane County Prosecutor Larry Haskell was out of the office Friday.

A hearing to address the defense motion and other matters is set for April 27-28.

Aguirre’s other two felony charges in Spokane County — tampering with a witness and voyeurism — already have been dismissed by prosecutors, the clerk’s office said.

He also faces third-degree rape and fourth-degree assault charges in Franklin County Superior Court. The trial date is June 8.

Aguirre, now 51, had been stationed at Fairchild Air Force Base near Spokane until he was given overseas orders.

Browne attached an “Airman Performance Report” to his motion, showing Aguirre’s report period at Osan Air Base was Dec. 24, 1985, to Dec. 23, 1986.

That document does not show if he ever returned to Washington on leave during his year in South Korea.

Aguirre was a material facilities specialist whose overseas duties included equipment accountability, picking up and delivering furniture to both on- and off-base accounts, and helping to maintain customer furnishings records for more than 1,600 accounts.

Aguirre returned to Fairchild AFB, where he remained until his release from active duty in January 1988. He was hired that same year by the Pasco Police Department.

Aguirre was honorably discharged from the Air Force Reserve in January 1990, according to another document attached to the defense motion.

Then in 2014, after a woman accused Aguirre of sexually assaulting her in Franklin County while he was off duty, his DNA was entered into a national database as part of the investigation.

The Washington State Patrol Crime Laboratory informed Spokane Detective Kip Hollenbeck on Jan. 30, 2015, of the match to the Doss case.

Aguirre’s semen had been in a condom that was found about 254 feet from Doss’ body.

Browne, in his motion, didn’t explain how a condom with his client’s DNA was in the area more than a month after Aguirre’s departure from the United States.

But he did state that Doss was killed “in a known, popular area where prostitutes frequently took their clients for sex. Investigators observed several used condoms in close proximity to the crime scene.”

Browne said Doss’ DNA was not on that particular condom, and “not even a single cell of Mr. Aguirre’s DNA was found on the victim or her personal belongings recovered from the crime scene.”

He added that further testing by the state crime lab “definitively excluded” his client’s DNA profile from Doss’ fingernail scrapings.

“Nevertheless, the state continued to prosecute Mr. Aguirre for murder,” Browne wrote.

An affidavit filed by Hollenbeck when Aguirre was charged states Aguirre was deployed to South Korea from February 1986 to February 1987.

Yet, the defense motion claims that prosecutors have known the actual dates of Aguirre’s overseas service since getting military records in October 2015.

Browne said he secured certified copies of those records Feb. 16.

“Curiously, despite Mr. Aguirre’s complete alibi defense and the undisputed fact that no DNA nexus exists between Mr. Aguirre and the victim, the state refuses to acknowledge its shortcomings and dismiss this fatally flawed prosecution,” the motion states.

Aguirre reportedly has adamantly denied killing Doss. He resigned from the Pasco Police Department last April, ending his 27-year career.

Aguirre had been accused of making “concerted efforts” from jail to reach a former girlfriend who is a witness for the prosecution. That tampering charge was dismissed March 9.

He also allegedly recorded himself having sex with a man in a Spokane Valley hotel room.

The man told authorities he was not aware that Aguirre hid his iPhone and recorded them as they had consensual sex, court documents said. The man also claimed he didn’t know Aguirre snapped photos of him while he was face down on the floor and of his student ID card.

The voyeurism charge was dismissed Feb. 23 with a prosecutor’s note that it was “being filed in another jurisdiction,” the clerk’s office said.

The other jurisdiction was not clear Friday. Online Washington and federal court records don’t show any new cases for Aguirre.

This story was originally published March 11, 2016 at 8:26 PM with the headline "Defense: Ex-Pasco officer was overseas at time of Spokane murder."