Wednesday, December 28, 2016 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
31
High court sends 1993 murder back to lower court Oregon probe
By Gillian Flaccus
Associated Press
PORTLAND (AP) — The
Oregon Supreme Court on
Thursday said a lower court
must reconsider whether a
woman convicted of aggra-
vated murder deserves a
new trial because of police
reports that were only
received by her attorneys
nearly two decades after the
crime.
The decision sends Karlyn
Eklof’s appeal back to a
post-conviction trial court,
which had earlier dismissed
her request based on the new
evidence she believes would
have helped the attorney who
previously represented her
discredit two of the key wit-
nesses who testified against
her.
Eklof was sentenced
to life in prison for the
1993 murder of James
Salmu, a boat-builder from
Springfield.
She confessed to police,
but now says it was a false
confession, said her new
attorney, Jason Weber.
The case now goes to a
Washington County court,
which will hold a trial to
decide whether the evidence
in question could have made
a difference in the outcome
of the case. If the evidence is
found to be pertinent, Eklof
could then get a new criminal
trial in Lane County, where
the crime occurred, Weber
said.
Salmu had taken in Eklof,
who was homeless, and her
three children.
But Eklof and her then-
boyfriend, Jeffrey “Jethro”
Tiner, got into a fight with
Salmu after a pizza party on
March 21, 1993. That was
the last night Salmu was
seen alive. Salmu’s body
was found almost two years
later by a mushroom-picker
in woods about 50 miles east
of Springfield.
John Distabile, who was
at the party and witnessed
the fight, later told police
he thought Tiner was angry
because he suspected Salmu
had slept with Eklof.
Court documents and
police reports from the origi-
nal prosecution indicate that
police interviewed Distabile
over the course of months
and gave him multiple lie
detector tests. Distabile orig-
inally said he didn’t know
anything about Salmu’s
death, but eventually told
investigators he saw Tiner
punch Salmu and threaten
him with a handgun.
Distabile told police he
left the party while Salmu
was still alive but thought
that “something terrible was
going to happen to him,”
according to court documents
and 1994 police reports. He
was asked on lie-detector
tests if he had helped dispose
of Salmu’s body; he denied
it and was never charged
in connection with the
case.
Distabile declined to com-
ment when reached by phone
Thursday by The Associated
Press.
“I don’t want to get
involved in that again. No
comment, no,” he said,
before hanging up.
Those police reports,
however, were never given to
Eklof’s defense at the origi-
nal trial, said Weber.
Instead, an attorney work-
ing on Tiner’s post-convic-
tion appeal in 2012 stumbled
on the old exhibits and sent
them to Eklof’s new attorney.
“The evidence that we’re
talking about is not like these
tiny, slight inconsistencies.
It’s literally the police inter-
viewing (Distabile) over
the course of months and
threatening to charge him in
connection with the murder
— and they don’t disclose
any of that,” Weber told the
AP in a phone interview
Thursday.
Eklof also learned that
another witness against
her, Jeffrey Tiner’s brother,
had a criminal record that
could have been used to dis-
credit him in the eyes of the
jury, the Thursday decision
notes.
Prosecutors argued in
court papers that Eklof’s
appeal had no standing
because she didn’t raise the
issue within two years of her
original conviction.
She also did not raise it
in her first post-conviction
appeal.
Erik Hasselman, chief
deputy district attorney in
Lane County, said he had not
reviewed the opinion yet and
could not comment.
He said any implications
of prosecutorial misconduct
in the original trial were
unfounded.
Prosecutors in Lane
County did not return a call
seeking comment Thursday.
Weber said it would have
been impossible for Eklof to
raise the issue earlier than
2012 because she did not
know the police reports on
Distabile existed.
of voter
‘robocalls’
suspended
SALEM (AP) — Oregon’s
secretary of state is suspend-
ing an investigation into auto-
mated calls that told some
voters in the run-up to the
November election that they
were marked as “inactive”
voters in registration rolls and
their vote might not count.
Secretary of State Jeanne
P. Atkins said Tuesday that
while the calls confused vot-
ers, there is no evidence that
they contained deliberately
false information.
She has said previously
that the contacts may have
relied on outdated voter rolls.
In a statement, Atkins says
in the future, political cam-
paigns should consult with
state elections officials to
make sure their voter records
are up-to-date.
Voters all across the
state received the confusing
automated calls in the week
before the Nov. 8 election.
The U.S. Attorney’s
Office and the FBI also
looked into the complaints.
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