Opinion ID: 2621432
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Murder Case Facts and Procedural History

Text: ś 75 In 1996, two years before the R.S. rapes, 43-year-old G.H. moved into a house next door to her mother's. On July, 27, 1996, when G.H. did not show up for work at the restaurant where she was employed as a bartender, her coworkers became concerned and sent someone to check on her. A coworker found the back door of G.H.'s residence unlocked. She let herself in, looked through the house, and found G.H.'s body face down on her bed. ś 76 The evidence suggested that G.H. had been attacked in her kitchen. She was probably stabbed once in the neck and then dragged into her bedroom. G.H.'s work clothes had been cut off of her and her hands were tied behind her back with apron strings. She was then stabbed three times in the back. In addition she had three deep slicing wounds to the front of her throat. One of the throat wounds was inflicted so violently that a vertebra in G.H.'s neck was broken. The medical examiner concluded that G.H. suffered blunt force trauma to the head and she had several bruises, but the cause of death was multiple sharp force injuries to her back and neck. Semen was found in G.H.'s anal and vaginal swabs, on her thigh, and on the bedspread. The evidence suggested that she was still alive when she was raped. Missing from her home were a pair of diamond earrings, jewelry, and her cash tips from that evening. ś 77 Gregory lived with his grandmother across an alley from G.H.'s home. Police began to suspect him of complicity in the murder when he gave them inconsistent statements about his whereabouts at the time of the crime. However, the police could not definitively connect him to the crime until 1998. In 1998, DNA analysis of semen found at the G.H. crime scene was compared with blood samples obtained from Gregory in the R.S. rape case. The Washington State Patrol, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and a private lab all reported that Gregory was, to a high degree of probability, the source of the semen found at the G.H. crime scene. The various DNA tests compared differing alleles and thus produced varying odds of a random match. For example, the private lab, conducting short tandem repeat (STR) DNA testing, concluded that the chance of a random match in the African American population was 1 in 190 billion. The Washington State Patrol, conducting restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) DNA testing concluded that the chance of a random match was 1 in 235 million. ś 78 Gregory was already incarcerated awaiting trial in the R.S. rape case. He was questioned and then charged with aggravated murder in the first degree for the G.H. murder. The aggravating circumstance was that he committed the murder in the course of rape in the first degree and robbery in the first degree. The State elected to seek the death penalty. After a lengthy trial, the jury found Gregory guilty of aggravated first degree murder. Evidence was then presented to the same jury at the penalty phase. The jury concluded that [h]aving in mind the crime of which the defendant [was] found guilty, it was convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that there [were] not sufficient mitigating circumstances to merit leniency. MCP at 2983. Accordingly, Gregory was sentenced to death. Gregory appeals the aggravated first degree murder conviction and death sentence. Facts specific to particular issues will be discussed in more detail below.