Witness reports more information in Nickels trial

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EPHRATA - A witness in the David Nickels murder trial unexpectedly reported that Nickels asked if the witness would kill someone for $2,000.

The trial entered its seventh day of testimony Tuesday, starting with Deputy Prosecutor Tyson Hill saying the witness, Rex Lain, added the information shortly before testimony started.

Defense attorney Jackie Walsh argued the new information should be excluded from Lain's testimony, saying it was unbelievable the police and prosecutor's office couldn't have gotten the information earlier.

Nickels, 31, Helena, Mont., is on trial for first-degree murder. He is accused of shooting Sage Munro outside of Munro's Ephrata home on Dec. 29, 2009.

Prosecutors planned to call Lain to testify about a visit from Nickels shortly before the murder, Hill said. Lain was convicted of manslaughter after stabbing a man, and was expected to tell the jury Nickels asked about what it felt like to kill someone.

"It was just about five minutes before 9 (a.m.) when Mr. Rex Lain arrived," Hill said. "I sat down with him and Chief Deputy (Ryan) Rectenwald came in after a short period of time, and I just wanted to go over the questions I was going to ask him today. When we were talking about it, I asked specifically about the December time period when Mr. Nickels was at Mr. Lain's residence, around the 23rd, 24th of December."

Hill finished his interview, asking if Lain had anything to add to his testimony beyond what Hill already presented to the jury.

"(Lain) said, 'Yeah. He asked if he gave me $2,000, if I would kill someone,'" the deputy prosecutor said. "(Lain) said that this morning. Chief Deputy Rectenwald said, 'Why didn't you tell this to us earlier?' and Mr. Lain said, 'I thought I had.'"

Lain later told Rectenwald he didn't want to get involved in the case, so he didn't report the statement earlier.

Hill argued the statement shows Nickels planned to kill someone, saying it goes to the heart of the prosecution's case.

"We understand that on cross, obviously the defense would be able to confirm why he never said this on any prior occasion," Hill said.

Lain had been interviewed three times prior between police officer and deputy prosecutors, he said. Police interviewed Lain on Feb. 17, 2010, and the witness declined to write a affidavit about what Nickels said to him. Hill spoke with Lain on the phone for a few minutes about a month ago.

Walsh responded Lain never told defense investigators about the statements in either interview.

"There's no mention in the incident reports that I recall that Rex Lain ever said he refused to sign a declaration or affidavit, or he was offered to sign a declaration or affidavit," she said. "There is absolutely zero mention of any of these allegations that Mr. Nickels offered $2,000 ... Two and a half years after the incident took place, we are now hearing from the state about this chain of evidence."

When Grant County Superior Court Judge Evan Sperline pointed out the prosecutors hadn't heard the information before, Walsh argued if they spent more time with their witnesses, followed up with them and asked better questions then they could have learned the information.

"We're in trial, new disclosures have been made ... the defense is absolutely entitled to investigate this comment further," she said.

She said the questions police asked in the most recent interview of Lain were limited to whether Nickels asked him about what it felt like to kill someone.

"My sense from Mr. Lain is that he's trying to buy people off and get some benefit for himself," Walsh said. "I say that from my experience in investigating cases. Certainly, we need to have an opportunity to investigate these claims."

She argued the immediate remedy was to not allow Lain to testify about the alleged statement.

"It defies logic to think that they did not sit down with their witnesses before they come here and do a thorough investigation," Walsh said.

Sperline agreed the defense attorneys needed a chance to investigate, delaying Lain's testimony until next week. He said it was clear the prosecutors just learned the information, comparing it to a witness changing his testimony when he comes to court.

Along with learning about Lain's new information, Hill and Chief Deputy Prosecutor Ed Owens presented testimony from a Yahoo! representative and a Washington State Fusion Center analyst.

Farnoush Saffarpour, a Yahoo! legal assistant testified about an e-mail address, carkrazy07, which was reportedly controlled by Nickels. The defendant reportedly used the e-mail account to create a listing on craigslist.com attempting to purchase a .22 caliber pistol.

Saffarpour testified the account was created by a David Messick, with a Jan. 3, 1986 birthday.

Walsh questioned whether someone needs to provide any identification to create a Yahoo! e-mail account.

Saffarpour said they didn't.

"So anybody can set up an email account with Yahoo!?" Walsh asked. "Without any verification that the person who set up the account is who they report to be, is that right?"

Saffarpour said Walsh was correct.

Walsh asked if anyone with the password to the account could log into the service. She previously stated Marita Messick, Nickels' ex-girlfriend had access to the account.

"So if someone else had access to your password anybody could send out an email from your Yahoo! account, is that right?" she asked.

Saffarpour agreed.

Chad Melton, a criminal intelligence analyst with the Washington State Fusion Center, said the center was contacted to help track Nickels' cellphone calls. Melton testified he took the 389 calls Nickels received or sent and tracked what cell tower took the call.

Melissa Sandoval, a Verizon Wireless representative, testified earlier calls will normally go to the nearest tower, unless the tower is busy or something is blocking it.

The map showed Nickels' cellphone was in Helena, Mont., most of the day before the murder. making 66 calls in the city before the phone started moving west at 4:04 p.m.

The calls continued, following Interstate 90, through Montana, into Idaho and ending in Spokane with the final call coming at 8:47 p.m., Melton testified. The next call received by the phone was roughly 12 hours later at 8:51 a.m. the day of the murder.

Nickels' phone moved west and south on Dec. 29.

Walsh questioned whether police ever asked Melton to track Ian Libby's cellphone. The defense attorneys are arguing Libby shot Munro when he was reportedly prowling around Munro's truck.

Melton said the detectives didn't ask him to track Libby's phone or the phone of one of Libby's associate's Julian Latimer.

"Were you ever asked by detectives Rectenwald, (Dan) Dale or (Juan) Rodriguez, to go out and physically look at the cell sites and towers?" Walsh asked.

Melton said he wasn't asked, and didn't examine any of the towers involved in the calls.

"You can't speak to the radius of any particular call from a cellular telephone number to a particular tower, correct?" Walsh asked.

Melton agreed, he couldn't talk about how far away the phone was from the tower.