Clallam County Sheriff’s Deputy Wally Davis was shot to death two years ago today.
And the county’s chief prosecutor thinks that a verdict in the trial of his alleged killer will be rendered before the end of this year.
“We want this thing completed,” Prosecuting Attorney Christopher Shea said. “We want it over as much as anyone.”
Assuming the current schedule holds, a jury will be selected in Island County on Sept. 10-11. The jurors will be transported to Clallam County for the trial, set to begin Oct. 21.
The out-of-county jury was won by the defense, which contended that Thomas Martin Roberts cannot get a fair trial from a jury selected in Clallam County.
Roberts, who has a history of mental health problems, is accused of shooting Davis point blank on the porch of Roberts’ 2009 E. Ennis Creek Road house on Aug. 5, 2000.
Davis was responding to a disturbance call at the house, just outside the Port Angeles city limit near the edge of Ennis Creek.
The 9-1-1 caller told of a man shouting and “going crazy.”
A second deputy was directed to provide backup for Davis, but before his arrival an emergency dispatcher received a call from a neighbor who claimed to hear gunshots.
Two deputies and a Port Angeles police officer found Davis on the porch, fatally wounded from a shotgun blast.
Davis was pronounced dead at 1:39 p.m.
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The rest of this story appears in the Monday Peninsula Daily News. Click on SUBSCRIBE to get the PDN delivered to your home or office.