Victoria murder trial evidence may be used in U.S.

Prosecutors in a murder trial for a 1978 Port Angeles slaying are seeking to admit similar evidence from a Victoria murder trial that sent an American man to prison for 38 years.

Some of the evidence has been lost, including original fingerprints that were last in the possession of Victoria police.

Tommy Ross Jr. was convicted in the murder of Janice Forbes, a young Victoria mother who was bound and strangled in her Queens Avenue apartment on May 14, 1978.

Ross spent nearly four decades in prison in Canada before being granted full parole last November and deported to the United States.

Ross was then arrested and charged in the killing of Janet Bowcutt from Port Angeles, Washington.

Bowcutt was also a young mother who was bound and strangled in her home, a few weeks before Forbes, on April 24, 1978.

Last week, prosecutors in Clallam Country introduced a motion to admit evidence from the Victoria murder into Ross’s trial, set for August.

They argue that the value of the evidence outweighs any unfair prejudice from discussion of similar crimes, according to the motion, which cites fading memories and lost witnesses and evidence over the past 39 years.

Special prosecuting attorney Deb Kelly is also seeking to admit evidence from another case in Los Angeles in 1977, in which a young mother, Bethel Woolridge, was killed in a similar manner.

When Ross was convicted of killing Forbes in Victoria, the prosecution relied heavily on evidence and testimony from the Bowcutt murder, although Ross had not been charged in that case.

Detectives and witnesses travelled to Victoria to testify at Ross’s trial and evidence was submitted, including a fingerprint taken from the bathroom doorknob in the Bowcutt case, which authorities said was a match to Ross’s left middle finger.

Ross’s current lawyer, Lane Wolfley, has asked the courts to exclude the fingerprint evidence based on the fact that the original fingerprint lift card has been lost and an argument that Ross’s prints were planted as the result of collusion between Port Angeles and Victoria police.

Kelly called for the motion to be denied. While she said the original fingerprint card was likely lost by Victoria police, there are photos of it and previous authentication records.

The last record of the fingerprint card was from April 26, 1982, when the Victoria Provincial Court Registry released it to Sgt. Patrick Braiden.

Kelly’s motion states that a diligent search of Victoria police records failed to find the card and Braiden had since died, so its whereabouts might never be known.

Port Angeles police have no record of the card being returned.