Jurors on the Kitsap County Superior Court trial of a man accused in August of murdering Donald Duckworth, Bainbridge Island’s first murder case in two decades, heard opening statements on Monday.

As the trial progresses, however, jurors will not hear some of the strongest evidence after the judge on the case found police and prosecutors committed critical errors during the investigation and preparation for trial.

Brian Andrew Glaser, 31, charged with first-degree murder, not only allegedly confessed to shooting his former boss Duckworth, 66, but, according to court documents, led police to 16 shell casings and his 9mm Glock pistol used in the shooting.

Jurors will not hear any of that.

Jurors can hear that police found Glaser’s 9mm pistol in the house where he lives with his parents, as police claimed they would have found it without Glaser’s help.

Even getting the OK to present jurors with the gun came with a challenge from Glaser’s attorneys, as they said the Bainbridge detective who seized the gun did not properly document it and other evidence.

Then, as trial approached, prosecutors attempted to introduce evidence they say shows the bullets found at the scene came from Glaser’s pistol. The attempt failed, however, when Kitsap County Superior Court Judge Kevin Hull ruled prosecutors waited “until the eve of trial” to analyze all the bullets found at the scene. Hull called that delay “inexplicable” and found that prosecutors did not follow due diligence in having the evidence processed.

Glaser has a history of strange behavior people have found threatening. Family members told investigators that Glaser believed he knew many famous people. In 2014 the Secret Service placed a “lookout” on Glaser when he traveled to California at the same time former President Obama was there.

Case harder to prove after finding of errors

Hull’s decisions highlight the strict constitutional restrictions that police and prosecutors must follow if they wish to use their investigations in court.

The rulings also mean that without such evidence, prosecutors will have a more difficult task securing a conviction than it appeared when Glaser was arrested. At the time, former Bainbridge police Chief Matt Hamner praised investigators for resolving Duckworth’s homicide “very professionally and expeditiously.”

"Were there mistakes made?" Bainbridge Island Interim Police Chief Jeff Horn said. "Sounds like there were."

Shortly before 5 p.m. on Aug. 29, a man who hired Duckworth to drill a well on his property near the 7000 block of High School Road called 911 to report finding Duckworth on the ground. A Bainbridge detective determined he had been shot multiple times and 9mm bullets were found near Duckworth’s body.

Sheila Duckworth, Donald Duckworth’s wife of almost 40 years, grew worried that she hadn’t heard from her husband and went to the job site. When she arrived she saw a lot of cars and assumed the property owner had thrown a party.

“I figured Don was in there talking,” Sheila Duckworth testified Monday. “I was kind of mad at him, then I saw the flashing lights.”

In investigating Duckworth’s death, Bainbridge Island police summoned detectives from a county-wide task force made up of officers from other Kitsap County agencies. The group included detectives with more experience conducting murder investigations from Bremerton police and the Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office.

Horn said it wasn’t necessarily a bad thing that the city’s officers aren’t as familiar with conducting murder investigations.

“Thankfully we don’t have large-scale events” like homicides, he said.

The task force, called the Kitsap Critical Incident Response Team, more often investigates fellow Kitsap County police officers after an officer-involved incident than crimes.

Sheriff's detectives wrote in documents that they found on Duckworth’s truck fresh fingerprints matching Glaser’s. Glaser had provided his fingerprints when applying for a concealed pistol license. He was not prohibited from owning firearms and legally bought the pistol online, according to his lawyer.

Witnesses described a pickup truck at the scene similar to Glaser’s at about 1:50 p.m. Three men and then a neighbor reported hearing gunshots at the scene at about 3:15 p.m.

Family members of Duckworth told investigators that Glaser had worked for Duckworth's well-drilling business until months before. The two had a falling out and Glaser “seemed ready to snap,” according to court documents.

Officers watched Glaser's Eagle Harbor Drive house, where he lives with his parents, and arrested him the next day when he left with his father.

'Unlawful' conduct by police

Glaser agreed to be interviewed and his rights were read to him, including his right to request an attorney. At the beginning of the recorded interview, which was conducted in a parked car, Bremerton police detective Marty Garland was joined by Bainbridge police detective Eric Peffer, the city's lead on the case. When Peffer left to work on writing search warrants, Garland was joined by Kitsap County Sheriff's Office detective Sgt. Chad Birkenfeld.

A transcript of the interview was included in court documents:

Garland: When was the last time you saw Don?

Glaser: Um, I think I need a lawyer.

Garland: You think you need a lawyer?

Glaser: Yeah.

Garland: OK. So are you asking to speak to an attorney before we go any further?

Glaser: Yeah, I, what is this all about?

Garland: Well, this is about finding out what happened to Don.

Glaser was never put in touch with a lawyer, who would have likely told Glaser to refuse to answer any further questions. The interview lasted for more than five hours and continued after detectives stopped recording.

Glaser’s attorneys, Tom Weaver and Allyson Barker, argued that Glaser had requested an attorney “early and often,” according to documents, and requested suppression of the entire interview and the evidence gathered because of it.

The exchange at the beginning of the interview left prosecutors to argue in court that when Glaser said “yeah” he didn’t mean “yes.”

“It was a word filler,” said Deputy Prosecutor Coreen Schnepf, who has since taken a job with the Pierce County Prosecutor’s Office.

Referring to the transcript and recording, Hull asked why there was any confusion by Garland over the meaning of the word “yeah.”

“How does (Garland) not understand it when he asks the question and the defendant says ‘yeah?” Hull asked Schnepf. She repeated her argument that Glaser was not actually affirming he wanted a lawyer, but saying “yeah” the way a person might say “um.”

Garland did not immediately return a voicemail left Friday on his cellphone seeking comment. However, when called to the stand for the pre-trial hearings, Garland told Hull that he believed Glaser was highly intelligent and could redirect his questioning.

Of his decision forbidding prosecutors from using Glaser’s statements and the evidence he showed them, Hull called the interview “unlawful” and wrote that “the invocation of a constitutional right is to be scrupulously honored by law enforcement.”

Hull continued: “No further questions should have been asked of Glaser until he was placed in contact with an attorney.”

Following the end of the recording, Glaser led police around his house and yard, showing them the gun and where he buried the shell casings, according to court documents.

Warrants also questioned

Glaser’s attorneys also requested Hull suppress the evidence gathered as a result of Peffer’s series of search warrants, alleging Peffer erred when applying for them from Superior Court Judge Bill Houser. After seizing the gun, Peffer also did not properly log the gun and ammunition discovered by detectives, according to testimony, calling into question the legality of allowing jurors to hear about the pistol.

After another pre-trial fight over that issue, Hull sided with prosecutors. If Glaser is ultimately convicted, the issue will likely be reviewed again on appeal, as with others.

Horn said he continues to have faith in Peffer.

“Absolutely,” Horn said.

“I feel for the victim’s family, it’s a horrible, horrible thing,” Horn said, adding: “We want the truth to come out, no matter what.”

Ballistic evidence comes in late

Investigators recovered 12 bullets at the scene, but initially, due to “time restraints,” the Washington State Patrol Crime Lab tested three. The results were inconclusive.

After Deputy Prosecutor Schnepf left the office in February, Deputy Prosecutor Barbara Dennis took the lead on the case, joining Deputy Prosecutor Anna Aruiza.

On March 28, Dennis wrote to the lab about the rest of the bullets, according to court documents. The remaining nine bullets were then received by the lab on April 4.

As Hull wrote in his order, a week later, on April 11, six days before the trial was scheduled to begin, “the case pivoted significantly.”

The lab now reported that it had tested the other bullets and found, according to documents, that six of the bullets were fired from Glaser’s 9mm pistol.

Hull ruled that the disclosure left Glaser’s attorneys with not enough time to prepare a defense.

Hull found that because of governmental misconduct — be it unintentional — Glaser now faced a choice between objectionable alternatives.

“The defendant must either give up his right to a speedy trial or give up his right to be represented by counsel who has had sufficient opportunity to prepare his defense,” Hull wrote in his May 3 decision. “Neither one of these choices is acceptable.”

Hull’s ruling tossed the ballistic evidence. Prosecutors filed an appeal, which was denied, setting in motion the beginning of jury selection May 6. By Friday, May 10, a jury had been selected.

Prosecutor responds

County Prosecutor Chad Enright said the office had sent an email to Bainbridge police last year, requesting all bullets be tested, but then discovered the bullets had not been sent to the lab.

Enright said it was the office's obligation to continue testing evidence.

"We need to communicate with police so they know exactly what we want and when we want it," Enright said. "That didn't happen here. I'm responsible for that."

However, Enright said Hull could have allowed the ballistics evidence to be included in the trial if the interest of justice were better served by postponing the trial.

"We can respectfully disagree with the judge's assessment of justice in this case," Enright said, adding: "I still believe truth remains a central principle in any definition of justice."

However, even with the evidence being excluded from trial, Enright said he believes prosecutors still have a "very strong" case.

"I think we do," he said.

Past behavior raised concerns

In June 2013, Rick Harrison, the star of the Las Vegas-based reality television show “Pawn Stars” called Bainbridge police to report that Glaser had been repeatedly contacting him by phone and mail, according to documents obtained by the Kitsap Sun through the state’s Public Records Act.

Harrison asked an officer to talk to Glaser and tell him to stop contacting him.

“Harrison advised that Glaser had been calling him at home and telling him that if (Harrison) didn’t pay him for the gold he sold him that lots of people were going to die,” the officer wrote. “Harrison said that he has met a lot of strange people but Glaser ‘creeps’ him out.”

The officer went to Glaser’s house to tell him that Harrison would not pursue harassment charges if Glaser stopped contacting him.

“Glaser said OK but appeared to be distracted,” the officer wrote.

In February 2014, Glaser showed up at the front door of the personal residence of Obama’s Chief of Staff, Denis McDonough, in Maryland. When Secret Service agents went to interview him at a hotel room, Glaser said that he could tell the future and had predicted the Boston Marathon bombing and the Newtown school shooting. He told the agent that Michelle Obama and the couple’s children had visited Bainbridge to meet him because of his abilities to tell the future.

When agents contacted his mother, she said that Glaser believed he was due to be paid millions from funds devoted to anti-terrorism.

“She advised Glaser told her months ago he would go to DC to get his money, but never thought he would actually do it,” the agent wrote.

The agent wrote that Glaser became agitated when questioned about his mental health and refused to discuss the issue. On Feb. 8, 2014, a “lookout” was placed on Glaser based on his “fixed delusions.”

Glaser left Washington, D.C., but instead of returning to Washington state, he flew to Los Angeles. At the same time, Obama was traveling to Fresno. The next day, Feb. 11, 2014, a “lookout” was placed on Glaser for the duration of Obama’s California visit.

Glaser’s family told the agent they knew Glaser had significant mental health issues, but they were frustrated by his refusal to seek treatment.

One family member said “despite family attempts, they cannot get help until he does something of significance,” according to the documents.

Prosecutors inform jurors about errors

In her opening remarks on Monday, Dennis told jurors the investigation was partly conducted by experienced detectives summoned by Bainbridge police.

“Does that mean the investigation ran smoothly?” Dennis said. “No, it does not.”

In Barker’s opening statement, she said prosecutors did not have enough evidence to prove Glaser’s guilt, describing the case prosecutors would present as a “whodunit.”

“You will not hear anything from the state that solves that whodunit,” Barker said.

This story was changed to correct Donald Duckworth's age.

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