Pubdate: Sat, 15 Sep 2001
Source: Tacoma News Tribune (WA)
Copyright: 2001 Tacoma News Inc.
Contact:  http://www.tribnet.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/442
Author: Sarah Duran

APPEALS COURT OVERTURNS EGGLESTON MURDER CONVICTION

Judges: Errors Made In Both Trials For Killing Of Pierce County Deputy; 
Case Sent Back To County, Which Will Appeal To State Supreme Court Or Try 
Case A Third Time

A state appeals court Friday overturned the murder and assault convictions 
of Brian Eggleston, who fatally shot Pierce County sheriff's deputy John 
Bananola in 1995.Eggleston maintained he shot Bananola in self-defense 
during a drug raid at his home. The jury in his first trial, in 1997, hung 
on the first-degree murder charge but convicted him of first-degree assault 
and four drug counts.

In the second trial, in 1998, a jury convicted him of second-degree 
murder.Eggleston is serving a prison term of nearly 49 years.

The Court of Appeals Division 2 said Eggleston didn't get a fair trial both 
times and ordered the case returned to Pierce County.The errors included:* 
Unfair jury instructions.* Misconduct in the second trial by a juror who 
told other jurors about Eggleston's earlier assault and drug convictions.* 
Some evidence illegally seized by deputies in the homicide 
investigation.Pierce County Prosecutor Gerry Horne, who helped prosecute 
Eggleston in his first trial, said he will ask the Washington State Supreme 
Court to hear the case and overturn the appeals court ruling.

If that doesn't work, he said, he will try Eggleston a third time."We 
expect when it goes to a jury again, again a jury will find him guilty," 
Horne said.When she heard the news, Eggleston's mother, Linda Eggleston, 
cried and said, "Thank God." His attorneys, Eric Nielsen and Eric Broman, 
called the court's decision "a great day for justice."Glori Manning, the 
deputy's former wife, also cried when she heard the news. She worried about 
how this will affect Bananola's daughter, Brooke.She said she supports 
another trial but added, "Six years later and we have to go there 
again?"Pierce County Executive John Ladenburg, who was county prosecutor 
during the Eggleston trials, said he couldn't comment because he hadn't 
read the decision.

Sheriff's deputies raided the Eggleston home on Tacoma's East Side because 
they believed he was selling marijuana. Relying on information from an 
informant, they got a search warrant and raided the home Oct. 16, 
1995.Wearing dark clothes that identified them as law enforcement officers, 
seven deputies entered the home about 8 a.m. Eggleston, who was sleeping 
after finishing his shift as a bartender, heard the commotion and a 
gunfight broke out. Eggleston later said he thought he was firing at intruders.

During a brief shootout, he and Bananola were wounded, the deputy 
fatally.After reviewing the case, the appeals court cited a variety of 
errors that included:* In both trials, prosecutors were allowed to give a 
jury instruction on use of force by law enforcement officers in the line of 
duty. The instruction essentially eliminated Eggleston's ability to claim 
self-defense.* After the shootout, deputies should have gotten a second 
warrant to investigate Bananola's homicide. They could collect evidence in 
plain view but needed another warrant for the thorough search they 
conducted."The removal of portions of a television, two walls and the 
ceiling constituted a search independent of the initial intrusion and 
exceeded the officers' lawful rights of access," the judges wrote.* During 
the 1998 trial, one juror knew about Eggleston's convictions from the first 
trial.

After Superior Court Judge Leonard Kruse learned this, he replaced the 
juror and allowed the jury to continue deliberating.The judge should have 
more thoroughly investigated whether the juror's comments had tainted the 
others, the appeals court said.The appeals judges backed the sheriff's 
department in one of the central issues in the controversial case: Did 
deputies have enough evidence to search Eggleston's home in the first place?

The court ruled they did.The judges also upheld Eggleston's drug 
conviction, for which he received a sentence of about six years.Monte 
Hester, who represented Eggleston during both trials, was pleased by the 
decision.

He'd unsuccessfully raised these questions during the trial."We didn't have 
a level playing field at either of the trials," Hester said. Ed Troyer, a 
spokesman for Sheriff Paul Pastor, said the department was disappointed by 
the decision.

Pastor, who was not sheriff at the time of the raid, continues to support 
the department's actions the day of the raid."We support Gerry Horne in 
whatever actions he decides to take and will fully participate in a new 
trial," Troyer said.
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