Court to hear new evidence attorney says questions Bass’ conviction for Stavik murder
A court hearing will be held over evidence revealed in 2020 that the lead defense attorney for Timothy Forrest Bass, the Everson man convicted last summer of abducting, raping and murdering Amanda “Mandy” Stavik in 1989, argues casts doubt on Bass’ conviction.
Whatcom County Superior Court Judge Rob Olson will decide whether the evidence presented requires the case against Bass to be dismissed, the case to be brought back for a second trial or to deny Follis’ motion all together. If the motion is denied, it will likely become part of Bass’ current appeals case.
The lead defense attorney, Starck Follis, director of the Whatcom County Public Defender’s Office, filed a motion June 26 that argues that the evidence was never disclosed to defense attorneys and that there is at least one potential suspect who was never investigated by the Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office, according to Whatcom County Superior Court records. The motion asks for an evidentiary hearing, in which witnesses with knowledge of the evidence would testify, and also asks for a relief from judgment, meaning a dismissal or new trial in the case.
Follis had one year to file the motion from the time Bass was sentenced to prison — Follis filed it a little more than a week from the deadline.
On Tuesday, Sept. 8, Olson ruled that the court will hold a multi-day hearing with witnesses regarding the evidence the defense presented. The hearing will likely take place within the next few months, Olson said.
Stavik disappeared Nov. 24, 1989, while jogging near her home on Strand Road in Clipper, near Acme in Whatcom County. Three days later, the 18-year-old’s nude body was found in the south fork of the Nooksack River. She had been abducted, raped and murdered.
On July 2, 2019, Bass was sentenced to nearly 27 years in prison — almost as much time as he was free — for killing Stavik. A jury found Bass guilty of first-degree murder May 24 after a three-week trial in Superior Court. Bass maintains his innocence and filed an appeal immediately following his conviction.
New evidence
In early 2020, Bass’ mother, Sandra, contacted her son’s defense attorneys and said she had information about a witness who had details about the Stavik case and a potential suspect who was never investigated, court records show.
Bass’ mother was expected to testify as an alibi witness at her son’s trial, but was ultimately never called. At her son’s sentencing hearing, she said she knew her son was innocent and still believed Stavik’s killer was out there.
Follis, the defense attorney, was put in touch with Paul Murphy in early 2020. Murphy is a former Whatcom County Sheriff’s deputy who was fired from his position in 2012 after he allegedly tampered with his work computer and maintained private files on citizens, according to previous Bellingham Herald stories. Other sheriff’s office employees also had concerns about Murphy’s mental health, the court records show.
Murphy sued for wrongful termination the following year, arguing he was fired because he campaigned on social media against Sheriff Bill Elfo’s reelection bid. The county settled Murphy’s federal lawsuit for $300,000 in 2014 and Murphy agreed to resign from the sheriff’s office, Herald archives show.
During an interview held with Murphy during his wrongful termination lawsuit, Murphy told the interviewer that he had knowledge of a potential suspect in the Stavik case who was never investigated and that there was corruption within the sheriff’s office when it came to the case, court records show. When asked whether he had reported the alleged corruption, Murphy said he contacted the U.S. Marshals Service.
“I believe that investigation is being buried,” Murphy said at the time, court records show.
Murphy later went on to say that in 1990, a woman who lived in the Acme area came forward to say she had seen a woman who looked like Stavik in a car arguing with an older male on Nelson Road on the day after Thanksgiving in 1989. When Murphy allegedly told the lead detective on the Stavik case about this information and named the potential suspect, the lead detective allegedly said he wasn’t interested and wouldn’t be pursuing the lead, court records show.
In a statement from the woman filed with the court, she said once she learned Stavik was missing, she contacted the sheriff’s office to report what she had seen the day prior in 1989. The woman said no one got back to her or interviewed her until a year after Stavik’s disappearance, court records state.
In the woman’s sheriff’s report from 1990, it states that the woman initially believed the male Stavik was with was possibly Charles Sinclair. Sinclair was an alleged serial killer who died in prison in Alaska in 1990 shortly after he was arrested for murders across several Western states. It was later determined that Sinclair was in Alaska at the time of Stavik’s abduction and murder.
The woman said she later received further information about the identity of the man in the car on Nelson Road, and she passed that information on in a letter sent to Murphy when he was still employed with the sheriff’s office.
Bass’ defense attorney argues the prosecution knew about this information and it was never disclosed to the defense for use during the trial. Because of this, an evidentiary hearing must be held and Bass should receive relief from judgment, court records state.
Credibility issues
But David McEachran said the information was provided to the defense in January 2018 as part of nearly 6,000 pages of evidence. McEachran is a former longtime Whatcom County prosecuting attorney and has been appointed as a special prosecutor to handle the Bass case.
Several documents filed by McEachran argue Murphy isn’t a credible source, due to his termination and concerns over his mental stability. McEachran argues the woman who came forward is also not credible, and that between 1985 and 2013 she had contacted the sheriff’s office 125 times about various suspicious circumstances, alleged child and sexual abuse and other crimes, court records show.
In a statement filed with the court, sheriff’s detective Kevin Bowhay, who was lead detective on the Stavik case since 2009, said Murphy never contacted him or provided him with information regarding the potential suspect mentioned by the woman. Bowhay also said Murphy never once filed any written reports regarding the information, court records state.
“He was never involved in the case. He never made a report. There is nothing in the files verified by Bowhay … and that’s critical,” McEachran said of Murphy at Tuesday’s court hearing.
McEachran argued the information wasn’t new, there were credibility issues with the witnesses who were presenting this information and that Bass’ defense didn’t meet the standard to require a dismissal or new trial.
Judge Olson ruled that an evidentiary hearing was needed in which Murphy, and likely others, will testify about the evidence. Olson will decide on the credibility of Murphy and the other witnesses and rule on Bass’ defense attorney’s request for relief from judgment.
This story was originally published September 10, 2020 at 1:22 PM.
