PORT ANGELES – In a stunning reversal, Robert Gene Covarrubias intends to change his plea back to not guilty of murdering 15-year-old Melissa Leigh Carter in December 2004, his lawyer said Monday.
Ralph Anderson of Port Angeles told Clallam County Superior Court Judge George L. Wood that Covarrubias was in a “depressed” mental state and not taking his medication when he changed his plea in court last Thursday to guilty.
After maintaining his innocence for 4 ½ years, Covarrubias had said he was guilty not only of first-degree murder, but he had raped Carter before he killed her.
Then on Friday, he told Anderson that “he was off his medication and did not kill Melissa,” the lawyer said at the court hearing Monday.
‘Off medication’
Anderson said Covarrubias said he also was off his medication when he confessed to police July 15 that he had killed Carter.
“I’ve never seen anything like this in my career,” said Anderson, a lawyer for 32 years and veteran of 19 murder trials.
Covarrubias was scheduled to be sentenced this Wednesday.
Instead, Anderson will file a motion today to change Covarrubias’ plea.
A hearing will be 9 a.m. Wednesday on the motion, but arguments are not expected, Anderson said.
Wood said the admissibility of Covarrubias’ 83-page confession will not be an issue when Wood considers Covarrubias’ request the hearing Wednesday, though he is not expected to issue a ruling.
Wood has refused to make the confession document public.
A change of plea can be accepted “to correct a manifest injustice,” Wood said.
A manifest injustice “is obvious and directly observable, an overt injustice, and not an obscure one,” the state Court of Appeals said June 2 in a decision involving a plea agreement.
“Manifest injustice includes instances where effective assistance of counsel was denied, the plea was not voluntary, the plea agreement was not honored by the prosecution, or the plea was not ratified by the defendant,” the court said.
High standard
The “manifest injustice” standard “is a very high standard and one that is difficult to meet,” said county Prosecuting Attorney Deb Kelly, who plans to challenge the change of plea.
Melissa Carter’s mother, Carla, was in the courtroom Monday and had started crying when she learned of Covarrubias’ change of heart, she said after the hearing.
She said that during the hearing, she put a small sign on her shoulder that said, “Hang him.”
“I was so upset I really couldn’t think straight,” she said in a later interview.
Before he confessed, Covarrubias had maintained his innocence since 2005, when he was arrested for killing Carter, whose nude body was found up an embankment overlooking the Port Angeles Waterfront Trail just east of the Red Lion Hotel.
“I’m disappointed he has chosen to put the family through more grief,” Kelly said.
Kelly did not know Covarrubias is on medication for depression “and I still don’t know that,” she said.
Anderson said in a later interview that he and his private investigator, a former police officer, had doubts about Covarrubias’ confession after reading it a second time.
“We see problems with it that look different in light of the defendant telling us he was depressed at the time,” Anderson said.
Covarrubias would have been sentenced to 34 ½ years to life.
A sentencing review board would have had to approve his release.
If he hadn’t confessed, his maximum sentence would have been 34 ½ years.
That’s what Covarrubias was sentenced in April 2006 after a jury found him guilty of Carter’s death.
At his sentencing, he had scrawled “INNOCENT” on the back of his jail jumpsuit.
New trial ordered
The state Court of Appeals on Jan. 6 ordered a new trial, citing errors in the proceedings.
Carla Carter’s parents and sister, who live in Salem, Ore., had planned to travel to Port Angeles for the Wednesday sentencing, and she had already written a victim-impact statement she planned to read in court.
“It’s not fair, it’s just not fair,” she said.
“I’m flabbergasted. He confessed, and he needs to follow through on that. He needs to be sent away.
“It’s like he’s playing games back and forth. To me, that means he has no true conscience.”
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Staff writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-417-3536 or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
