Russell Filing Appeal

SPOKANE — Attorneys for Fred Russell confirmed Monday they are filing a wide-raning appeal of his conviction on vehicular homicide and vehicular assault charges.

Russell was found guilty in a Cowlitz County courtroom last November on three counts of vehicular homicide and three counts of vehicular assault. The appeal of Russell’s convictions last November alleges a number of errors during his trial.

The appeal is being filed by the law offices of Fox Bowman & Duarte, Russell’s defense attorneys. Copies of the appeal were mailed to Whitman County and will be officially filed sometime later this week when they receive it.

Their eight-point case for the appeal calls to question the admission of evidence in the case, including Russell’s blood alcohol results and a medical blood test, statements made by Russell to a Washington State Patrol trooper the night of the crash, the court’s admission of other testimony and evidence into the record and what the defense claims is the court’s error in failing to dismiss the jury panel.

The appeal, which is being filed Monday, is dated January 2nd, 2008, the same day that Whitman County Judge David Frazier sentenced Russell to 14 years in prison for the June 4, 2001 car crash along the Moscow – Pullman road that took the lives of WSU students Stacy Morrow, Ryan Sorenson and Brandon Clements.

Kara Eichelsdoerfer, Sameer Ranade, Matt Wagner and Eric Haynes, who were in the car with the three students who were killed, were injured in the crash.

It will likely be 12 to 18 months before the appeals court will decide whether or not Russell would get a new trial.