Murder trial starts today in Port Angeles

PORT ANGELES — Trial starts today in Clallam County Superior Court for Robert Gene Covarrubias, who is accused of the December 2004 rape-murder of 15-year-old Melissa Leigh Carter.

Clallam County Prosecutor Deb Kelley and public defender Ralph Anderson will make their opening statements starting at 10:30 a.m. in the courtroom of Judge George Wood.

Last-minute pretrial motions at 9 a.m. will precede the statements.

Carter’s nude body was found Dec. 26 in a brushy hollow above the Waterfront Trail east of the Red Lion Hotel. She had been strangled.

Three days earlier, she and Covarrubias had been at a party at a motel. Anderson is expected to argue that at least three other individuals might have committed the murder.

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