Brent Luyster’s triple-murder case captured the public’s interest from across the nation and was arguably one of Clark County’s most notorious in recent years. It was also one of the most expensive.
Luyster’s case was the county’s second-most expensive in the last decade, according to public records obtained and analyzed by The Columbian.
Less than $1,000 separated Luyster’s total defense costs from the costliest case, a 2011 case in which Dennis Wolter was convicted of aggravated murder. And Luyster’s defense cost taxpayers more than three times Darrin Sanford’s 2009 aggravated murder case.
Clark County Indigent Defense spent $374,594 on Luyster, compared with $375,439 on Wolter and $111,571 on Sanford, according to Indigent Defense Manager Ann Christian. And that doesn’t count the costs of the initial investigation and prosecuting the case, which are virtually impossible to calculate.
Luyster — a violent white supremacist — was convicted in November of aggravated first-degree murder and was later sentenced to three life sentences without the possibility of release, plus nearly 54 years for additional convictions. He is being housed at the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla, Washington’s toughest prison.
A Clark County Superior Court jury found that Luyster fatally shot his best friend, Zachary David Thompson, 36; friend, Joseph Mark LaMar, 38; and LaMar’s partner, Janell Renee Knight, 43, at LaMar’s home in Woodland in July 2016. He also shot Thompson’s partner, Breanne Leigh, in the face, but she survived.
Leigh identified Luyster as the shooter. A firm motive for the shooting was never revealed.
Complex and costly
A variety of factors contribute to how costly a case will be, including the nature of the crime, complexity of the defense and whether it goes to trial.
Aggravated murder is the most serious type of homicide in the state of Washington and the only crime that carries the possibility of capital punishment. For these reasons, they tend to be the most expensive cases.
Luyster’s case took nearly 1½ years to reach a resolution — relatively quickly for a case of this nature. It’s now on its way to the Washington Court of Appeals for consideration. Though Luyster’s trial was expected to last a month, it actually wrapped up in three weeks’ time. His defense strategy, “general denial,” was also much less complex than other available defenses.
In comparison, Wolter’s case took two years to reach trial; the trial itself lasted nearly four weeks. Wolter’s attorney also presented a defense of diminished capacity to form intent due to brain damage he reportedly suffered. That defense required an expert witness.
Sanford’s defense cost considerably less than both Luyster and Wolter’s cases because he pleaded guilty, rather than go to trial, within months of his arrest.
Clark County Prosecuting Attorney Tony Golik prosecuted both Wolter and Sanford’s cases.
He said Luyster’s case, unlike Wolter’s, required no additional costs from the prosecution.
Golik’s office hired a private neuropsychologist to testify in Wolter’s case, because the defense had called their own expert, and Western State Hospital didn’t have a neuropsychologist on hand. The prosecution’s expert cost $15,525, Golik said.
Trial costs for the prosecutor’s office generally involve the use of expert witnesses, which are typically government employees from Western State Hospital and the Washington State Patrol Crime Lab. There’s no cost to the prosecutor’s office to use those witnesses. And the court reimburses the prosecutor’s office for travel costs of witnesses.
Other costs include paying deputy prosecutors, which is pulled from a separate budget; overtime is not included because deputy prosecutors are salaried.
Other aggravated murder cases
In the last decade, Clark County has prosecuted three aggravated murder cases, including Brent Luyster's.
The most expensive and lengthy proceeding was for Dennis Wolter, who brutally stabbed to death his estranged girlfriend, Kori Fredericksen, in May 2011 in Vancouver's Lincoln neighborhood.
A Clark County Superior Court jury convicted Wolter of first-degree aggravated murder in June 2013, and he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of release. Wolter is being housed at the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla.
In February 2009, Darrin Sanford, a Level III sex offender, fatally stabbed 13-year-old Alycia D. Nipp to conceal the fact that he had raped her. Alycia's body was found in an overgrown field near the Goodwill Industries store on Northeast 78th Street in Hazel Dell.
Sanford pleaded guilty to first-degree aggravated murder in June 2009. In return for his guilty plea, the death penalty was taken off the table, and he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of release. He, too, is being housed at the Washington State Penitentiary.
Taking on a big case, such as Luyster’s, however, puts a strain on the deputy prosecutors’ caseloads, Golik said. Luyster’s case required two deputy prosecutors. And although they don’t track their hours, Golik said it’s likely they spent thousands of hours conducting pretrial interviews, going through discovery, prepping for trial and prosecuting the case.
Attorney invoices
The majority of Luyster’s defense costs — $281,143.77 — went to his parade of attorneys; he went through six.
Clark County Indigent Defense oversees the county’s 36 contracts with, mostly, private-practice attorneys who represent individuals unable to afford legal counsel.
In 2017, the county spent $5.6 million on indigent defense services. Ninety to 92 percent of defendants facing felonies receive indigent defense attorneys, and 47 to 50 percent of alleged misdemeanants, Christian said.
Felony contracts through Indigent Defense pay attorneys on a flat fee basis, ranging from $800 for the least serious felonies to $2,250 for the most serious felonies (Class A sex offenses). The contracts do not cover homicide or “third-strike” (life sentence) cases. Those cases are paid at $90 an hour. Aggravated murder cases are paid at a rate of $100 an hour; $150 an hour for lead counsel and $120 an hour for co-counsel if it’s a potential death penalty case.
Vancouver attorneys Chuck Buckley and Steve Rucker were appointed to Luyster’s case in March 2017 and June 2017, respectively, and carried it through trial, sentencing and his appeal submission.
Attorney invoices submitted to Indigent Defense show that Buckley, the lead attorney on Luyster’s case, was paid $60,795. Rucker, whom Buckley selected as co-counsel, was paid $46,932.25. Some of the fees for both attorneys went to pay their support staff who assisted on the case.
Those costs included completing and filing paperwork, client meetings, trial preparation, phone calls and emails, and court appearances, among other work.
The county also spent $6,625 on one defense expert who testified at Luyster’s trial. A second defense expert opted to offer his services at no charge. Potential payment for two other defense experts, who did not testify, is unknown as those records are sealed.
Luyster’s previous defense team filed a motion to seal documents related to public funds used for expert services and other defense costs, and it was granted by Judge Robert Lewis in August 2016. However, in November, Lewis granted the prosecution’s motion to unseal court documents related to the testifying defense experts.
Prior to Buckley and Rucker’s appointments, Jeff Barrar of Vancouver Defenders was briefly assigned to Luyster’s case. He only spent about 5½ hours on it for a total of $495, before stepping down due to a potential conflict of interest.
Before Barrar, Luyster was represented by attorneys Bob Yoseph and Edward LeRoy Dunkerly, beginning in August 2016.
Yoseph was assigned to Luyster’s case because he was one of the few attorneys designated by the state Supreme Court to handle potential death penalty cases. Yoseph and Dunkerly prepared Luyster’s death penalty mitigation package.
They both stepped down from the case in March 2017 after Lewis ruled only one attorney could stay on, following the prosecution’s decision not to pursue the death penalty. Lewis later changed his mind, though, and granted Buckley’s request for co-counsel.
For their work, Yoseph was paid $76,193.02, and Dunkerly was paid $96,206.50, attorney invoices show.
Luyster was initially represented by attorney Susan Stauffer, but she was replaced with Yoseph when the case was charged as aggravated murder.
Stauffer only put in 5.8 hours and was paid $522, an attorney invoice shows.
Between all of Luyster’s attorneys, they put in a combined 2,435.55 hours on his case, according to invoices, which is not an unusual amount of time, Christian said, based on the nature of the case.
Security costs
Luyster’s case also created extra work for the Clark County Sheriff’s Office.
Undersheriff Mike Cooke wasn’t comfortable disclosing how many officers were assigned to Luyster’s security detail at any given time but said there were six to 10 officers assigned per day for the trial’s duration. That number varied on what was going on during trial and availability, he said.
Security costs totaled $7,223.63 for sheriff’s office personnel, which included wages for officers who worked the trial. Some of that cost was overtime, but Cooke said they tried to adjust deputies’ schedules to minimize overtime.
SWAT officers, including some with the Vancouver Police Department, were also assigned to Luyster’s security detail, Cooke said, because of their specialized training.
“Certainly, the attempted jail escape heightened our concerns, but he was a high-risk inmate to begin with, because of the nature of the crime,” he said.
“This was an exceptional effort on our part to provide security for the trial,” Cooke added.
Three Vancouver police officers were paid overtime for parts of the trial, Vancouver Police Department spokeswoman Kim Kapp said in an email. Those overtime costs totaled approximately $7,958 for the entire trial, she said.
The same level of security measures were not employed in Wolter or Sanford’s cases.
“It was a brutal murder; I think it shocked the conscience of our community,” Cooke said of Luyster’s case. “Speaking from personal experience, murders of this type are extremely traumatic to everyone involved and as a community, when this type of raw violence occurs, it’s an impact to all of us.”
There were other costs to the sheriff’s office, in addition to security and Luyster’s housing, that Cooke didn’t immediately have on hand.
For instance, there were expenses for fixing the jail window Luyster broke in his cell during an alleged escape attempt. And there were other antics described in court records — Luyster wiping feces around and urinating inside and outside of his cell, flooding his cell, scratching the camera cover in his cell, short-circuiting a fire detection box, removing an electrical outlet — that likely required employee time and effort, as well as supplies, to fix, Cooke said.
“Our job is not only the initial response and investigation, but to make sure we house the person appropriately so the court process can take place and the criminal justice system can move forward with the case,” he said.
