Opening statements heard in Marcher trial

EPHRATA — The jury heard opening statements in the trial of a Moses Lake man accused of shooting an off-duty Grant County sheriff’s deputy.

Robbie Joe Marcher, 40, is charged with assault in the first degree, unlawful hunting of big game in the second degree and failing to summon assistance.

Deputy Earl Romig was hunting coyotes when he drove to orchard on the corner of Road 21 Northeast and Road B near Soap Lake on Jan. 10, 2008, Chief Deputy Prosecutor Ed Owens said.

“You’re going to hear testimony that he wasn’t dressed in orange. In fact, he’s dressed in a white sweatshirt with a black hood,” Owens said. “He’s in camouflage pants, and you’ll hear why he wasn’t dressed in an orange outfit … Testimony is going to show the only time you really need to be in orange is when you’re big game hunting.”

After parking, he walked down the road and noticed an accident and saw a man holding a gun.

“There was a pickup there, a white pickup. When Mr. Earl Romig gets up there he walks up the crest of the hill and there’s a man standing there,” Owens said. “He’s standing there and he had the gun pointed right at (Romig.)”

After seeing the gun, the deputy moved off the road and headed into a field. Romig started calling coyotes, he said. He spent 20 minutes trying to call coyotes before he started heading back to his girlfriend’s SUV.

He started walking back to the place he entered the field. After walking part of the way, he remembered the man holding the gun and where his SUV is parked and decides to turn.

“Deputy Romig is going to testify that as he was walking towards the poplar trees, he turns around to go back down the gully and he hears a bee sound and immediately feels pain in his back, and his shirt just buckling out there,” Owens said.

He fell and then looked back and allegedly saw Marcher, the prosecutor said. Then Marcher allegedly walked away as Romig started to scream. The deputy fired three shots into the air to try to summon help. When no one responded the deputy started to crawl back toward the road. Then he spotted a passing vehicle and shot again. The driver, Don Thill, also noticed a white truck on the road and an older man taking off a chain on one of the tires.

The driver stopped and found the deputy and called 9-1-1. When deputies arrived, Romig told them, “the guy shot me. He shot me for no reason. I saw him.”

When Washington State Patrol detectives investigated the scene, they found it allegedly impossible to mistake a man through a scope.

“Even though this is an apple orchard, all of the leaves, as it happens in winter here, are off the trees. All these leaves are off these poplar trees,” Owens said. “The evidence will show if somebody is sitting there and looking out, they have a clear view of what’s going on.”

After searching for people with licenses to hunt coyotes in the area, detectives went to question Marcher’s father and found a truck reportedly matching the truck Thill saw near the scene. When police questioned Marcher’s father he allegedly told them, he had been hunting in the area, but not near where Romig was shot from, Owens said.

Marcher’s father also allegedly said when he returned to his truck both Marcher and the extra rifle he kept in the truck were missing. Then the police questioned Marcher, he reportedly told them he spotted a deer in the area and followed it, Owens said. The spot where he walked out from was allegedly close to where Romig spotted him with the gun.

The defendant said he heard yipping and fired at what he thought was a coyote, adding he didn’t check to see what he hit.

Defense attorney Brett Billingsley said Marcher did not shoot Romig. He challenged the idea Romig turned back, saying this was the first time he heard about it.

“He’s never said anything about that before … He was about 400 yards north of the tree line calling for coyotes,” he said.

The defense attorney pointed out the reason why it’s a good place to call for coyotes is because of a nearby canyon funnels them into the area.

“So there were people all over hunting. It wasn’t this completely pristine situation that the government wants you to believe,” Billingsley said. “There were people all over hunting. In fact, Donald Thill, the only reason he was here at all is he was scouting deer for his son.”

If Romig hadn’t turned, the shot could have come from the canyon.

Billingsley also pointed out the 9-1-1 operator asked if the shooting was an accident and Romig answered yes.

“And then afterwards … that’s when Mr. Romig says, ‘He shot me,’ when he clearly could not have witnessed that,” he said. “The evidence will show that initially Deputy Romig, who is trained in identifying these type of things, making observations said, ‘An F-150 with a canopy was the suspect vehicle and the guy who shot me was an old man.”

Marcher’s truck had snow in the back when police seized it. It was not an F-150, but the truck was white, Billingsley said it’s the most common color for a pickup truck in the world.

“The first logical conclusion, the most logical conclusion is Mr. Marcher didn’t shoot Earl Romig. The second conclusion is that even if he did, it wasn’t on purpose,” he said.

He also pointed out Romig did not shoot three shots into the air, until after the truck left the area.