PORT TOWNSEND — Robert Stoner walked slowly upstairs in his Lake Leland house last October and shot Douglas McFarland to death from the loft, eyewitness Don Pruitt testified in Stoner’s murder trial Thursday.
Stoner, 55, is on trial in Jefferson County Superior Court for the Oct. 2, 2000, shooting death of McFarland at Stoner’s home on Leland Valley Road.
Pruitt, the prosecution’s primary witness Thursday, recounted for the jury the evening hours of Oct. 2 when he spent several hours drinking alcoholic beverages with McFarland and Stoner before Stoner allegedly shot McFarland, 48.
However, Stoner’s attorney, Chuck Henry, suggested under cross-examination that Pruitt shot McFarland, not Stoner.
Henry suggested through questioning that McFarland tried to steal 5½ ounces of marijuana from Pruitt and that Pruitt shot him to stop him.
But when the defense attorney asked Pruitt if he shot McFarland, Pruitt answered, “No.”
Henry will continue his cross-examination of the 44-year-old Pruitt at 8:30 a.m. today.
Prosecuting Attorney Juelie Dalzell plans to call Washington State Patrol ballistics expert R.T. Wyant following Pruitt’s testimony.
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