Lazcano case goes to jury

Daniel Lazcano

A Whitman County superior court jury Wednesday morning continued deliberation for a second day after hearing six days of testimony and arguments in the trial of Daniel Lazcano.

The jury was asked to render a verdict on charges of first degree murder of Marcus Schur of Rosalia, kidnapping and unlawful dispoal of a body. They were also given an alternative— finding Lazcano guilty of second-degree murder.

Deliberation continued past deadline for this edition of the Gazette.

At the start of the case, Spokane Attorney Eric Christianson said Daniel Lazcano admitted the charge of unlawful disposal of Schur’s body on the night of Dec. 27, 2011.

The jury Tuesday afternoon began its deliberation after listening to six days of testimony which started last Monday afternoon after they were seated.

Prosecutor Denis Tracy called witnesses to present the state’s evidence until he announced the state was resting its case at the start of Friday’s court session.

Defense attorney Eric Christianson then called Daniel Lazcano to the stand. He gave his own account of the Dec. 27, 2011, event at Malden which took the life of Rosalia resident Marcus Schur.

Daniel and his brother, Frank Lazcano, were charged with the murder after Schur’s body was discovered March 25, 2012, by a fisherman near Bonnie Lake. Responding to questions from his attorney, Daniel Lazcano testified in his own defense for 40 minutes. He then faced an intense cross examination from Tracy which continued after the noon break on Friday. The defendant’s time on the witness stand totaled close to four hours.

The state’s case contended Daniel Lazcano became upset because he believed Schur stole items out of a house in Rosalia. On the day of the shooting, he came from Spokane, where he was residing with his girlfriend and met Frank at the Travis Carlon residence near Pine City.

The two brothers went to Malden where Schur was at a dinner gathering. Frank Lazcano allegedly forced his way into the front of the house and chased Schur out the back door where, according to testimony from the state’s witnesses, he was shot twice by Daniel with an AK-47 rifle.

According to testimony, the two brothers drove back to the Carlon residence, then departed with Carlon in separate cars south through Pine City. They turned onto Stephen Road and then onto Hole-in-The-Ground Road and stopped for a roadside conference at the Pine Creek bridge where the John Wayne Trail crosses.

The AK-47 rifle was placed in Carlon’s car, and the two brothers drove to Hole-In-The-Ground, dropped Schur’s body in the creek below the rock arch formation and left. The state also said Frank later drove the car to a remote location in the Nine-Mile area and burned it.

Daniel Lazcano, who sometimes broke into tears as he responded to questions from his attorney Friday, testified he and his brother drove from Pine City to Malden that night to find Schur, but he said they first stopped in Malden at the home of “Uncle Jimmy,“ later identified as James Holdren.

Daniel said he remained at Holdren’s residence while his brother and Holdren left. He recalled petting dogs at the Holdren place while Frank and Holdren were away from Holdren’s residence. They later returned in an excited state, and Daniel Lazcano said he got back into the Ford Escort and Frank drove back to the Travis Carlon place at Pine City.

Daniel said he was told Schur’s body was in the trunk of the car. He recalled driving to Hole-in-the-Ground Road and stopping at the John Wayne Trail crossing and discussing what to do with the body. He testified he and his brother drove on to Hole-in-the-Ground, and he saw Schur’s body for the first time when they opened the trunk of the car.

He testified each brother took hold of a leg, and they tried different methods of carrying Schur’s body to the place where they dropped it in the creek.

Christianson began the defendant’s testimony by asking him to describe his life in November of 2011 before the alleged murder at Malden. He said he had stopped attending classes at Eastern Washington University at the time because of financial problems and found a place to live with Ben Eversen in Rosalia. He then related his response when he learned the Eversen house had been burglarized and some of his property, including two rifles, were missing. He confirmed earlier testimony that the rifles had been returned, and confirmed he later had a “heart to heart” talk with Schur who had promised him he would settle up for the remaining missing CDs and DVDs after the start of the year.

Friday afternoon, Tracy began the cross examination by stating “You shot Marcus Schur.”

“No,” Lazcano responded.

“No one else shot Marcus Schur,” Tracy said.

“Your question is untrue,” Lazcano replied.

At one point in the cross examination, Tracy grabbed the AK-47 rifle, which had been placed on the evidence table, and walked over to the witness chair where Lazcano was seated and asked, “Were you carrying this?”

“I can’t remember what happened that night; it was very traumatic,” Lazcano replied as he began sobbing.

Christianson began the defense case by calling Stephanie Vandyke, who had testified for the state earlier in the trial. She was asked to compare the defendant’s reputation for truthfulness with that of Ben Eversen who had testified earlier for the state. She said she had known Daniel Lazcano since the second grade and that he had been salutatorian of his high school class.

Dr. Jeffrey Reynolds, a forensic pathologist from Yakima, who conducted the autopsy on Schur’s body after it was discovered, Thursday afternoon used a model of a skeleton to help describe the two wounds he discovered in the body. He said Schur had been struck in the pelvis and in the top his shoulder. He said he concluded Schur had sustained the wound to the pelvis first and that would have caused him to fall to a horizontal point where his body would have been in alignment to be hit on the top of the shoulder by the other bullet.

Dr. Reynolds said the shoulder wound was fatal because it struck an artery which bled into the cavity left by a collapsed lung.

The pathologist also said Schur’s hands had been tied with a belt. He said one of the victim’s hands was found to be swollen, an indication his heart was still pumping at the time his hands were tied because one hand tied over the top of the other restricts circulation on one side.

Tracy rested the state’s case at 9:26 a.m. Tuesday.

Defense testimony concluded Tuesday when Dr. Carl Wigren, a forensic pathologist from Seattle, was called as a defense witness. He said earlier testimony by Dr. Reynolds that Schur had a pulse at the time his hands were tied together was “going out on a limb.” Dr. Wigren, who reviewed the reports and a video of testimony by the state’s witness, said it lacked any measurements, proper photographs or microscopic evidence. He also noted Schur’s body had been in the water several weeks before it was discovered March 25.

Tracy called two rebuttal witnesses, Undersheriff Ron Rockness and Deputy Sgt. Keith Cooper. Rockness testified about a March 30 interview with Daniel Lazcano in which he confronted the defendant with “working theories” of his investigation after Schur’s body was recovered March 25.

Before Rockness responded, Judge Frazier told the jury to consider the answers only on the context of Daniel Lazcano’s credibility.

Rockness said Daniel Lazcano “nodded his head up and down” when asked if he went to the scene of the shooting with his brother, went to the back door of the residence and pulled the trigger that night. Rockness also said Daniel made no response when asked questions about theories that turned out to be incorrect.

He also said Daniel Lazcano during the interview stated “I can’t believe I threw my whole life away because my house got robbed.”

Frank Lazcano, the other defendant in the Marcus Schur murder who is scheduled for trial Feb. 25, was called to the witness stand Friday to close out the fifth day of the trial.

Frank Lazcano declined to answer two questions under his Fifth Amendment rights. Christianson asked him if he murdered Schur at Malden Dec. 27, 2011, and if he was with Daniel and James Holdren of Malden on that night.

Last Wednesday, events which happened the night after Marcus Schur was shot in Malden were described by a series of prosecution witnesses.

Disposal and recovery of an AK-47 rifle and the burning of a white Ford Escort were detailed in Wednesday’s testimony.

Ben Eversen was called back to the stand Wednesday morning to continue a testimony about what Daniel Lazcano had told him about shooting Schur. Eversen, who was in jail at the time of the shooting, said Daniel later had talked to him about shooting Schur Dec. 27 after Schur failed to heed calls to stop running in back of the house in Malden.

Tracy also questioned Eversen about what the defendant told him about placing Schur’s body at Hole-in-the-Ground. Eversen said he learned from Daniel Lazcano that Schur had been placed below the natural arch formation at Hole-in-the-Ground and confirmed the site on the area map which had been projected on the courtroom screen in front of the jury.

Christianson began cross-examination of Eversen by projecting a copy of a plea bargain agreement which had been negotiated between Eversen and the prosecutor’s office in an unrelated case. One of the conditions of the agreement called for Eversen to agree to give a recorded version of an earlier statement he had given to deputies about his knowledge of the Schur shooting.

The plea bargain offer related to Eversen’s arrest for participating in a burglary of the liquor store at Rosalia. In exchange for relating what he had been told about the Malden shooting by Daniel Lazcano, the state offered to reduce two felony charges against Eversen in the liquor store case to one misdemeanor charge.

Travis Carlon, who was known as Uncle Travis to the Lazcanos brothers, testified about his part in disposing of the AK-47 by throwing it in the Spokane River late that night at the Meenach Bridge east of Spokane Falls Community College.

Carlon said Frank Lazcano, who had been among a group of people at the Carlon place on Squires Road earlier in the day, left with his brother to go to Malden.

He said Frank later walked back into the Carlon house and reported “it was bad.” They went outside where Daniel was sitting in the Ford Escort, and they proceeded to drive away from the residence.

Carlon testified they drove through Pine City and turned onto Stephen Road and then on Hole-In-the-Ground and drove as far as the first bridge.

He said he was asked to dispose of the AK-47, and he responded by pushing the release button to open the trunk of his Cadillac.

Carlon said he became aware that the body of Marcus Schur was in the trunk of the Escort. He said he did not see the body, but admitted he and the Lazcanos discussed what to do with the body. He also said Daniel Lazcano never specifically told him that he had shot Schur, but Daniel continued to lament, “I f...ed up.”

Carlon testified he and the Lazcanos separated, and he later left the AK-47 next to a fence post before arriving back at his house. He said he called Eli Lindsey to advise him of the situation. He said Lindsey drove to Pine City and the two of them traveled in Lindsey’s truck to Spokane. Carlon said he threw the AK-47 over the Meenach Bridge while Lindsey drove across it.

Lindsey, who followed Carlon on the witness stand, said he was a step-father of the Lazcano brothers through a prior marriage. He told the jury they had lived in his home for 13 years. Lindsey also said the Ford Escort driven by the Lazcanos that night belonged to him. He said Carlon called him several times while he was participating in a pool tournament at Lind and eventually decided to go to Pine City. He then drove Carlon to Spokane after they made a stop near Pine City to pick up the rifle near the fence post where Carlon had left it.

Deputies from the Spokane Sheriff’s Department dive team testified about how the gun was recovered below the Meenach Bridge Sept. 4.

Also testifying Wednesday were the girlfriends of the Lazcano brothers. Jaime Whitney, who had been with Frank Lazcano at the Carlon house earlier in the day, testified she later drove to Spokane in her Tahoe and then followed Frank Lazcano, who was driving the white Ford Escort north to a wooded area in the Nine Mile area. She said she waited in the Tahoe while Frank drove the Escort up the road with a can of gas. Whitney said she saw “a little glow” through the trees when Frank walked back to the Tahoe where she had been waiting.

McKyndree Rogers, who said she was Daniel’s fiancee, told the jury she was upset that night after she had been left at the Carlon residence while Daniel and his brother departed for Malden. She said Jaime Whitney eventually drove her back to her home in Spokane where the Lazcanos later arrived. A nurse’s assistant, she said she noticed Daniel Lazcano had sustained a gash on his leg and she applied a dressing.

Whitney and Rogers confirmed that they had been granted immunity from any charges that could evolve from their roles in the case.