The Clark County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office will retry Ronald Jay Bianchi on two charges stemming from a 1997 bank robbery that ended in a gun battle with police.
Jurors recently found Bianchi guilty of first- and second-degree attempted murder of Clark County Sheriff’s Sgt. Craig Hogman. They also found Bianchi guilty of numerous lesser charges.
However, the jurors were unable to decide on four additional counts of second-degree attempted murder, alleging he was an accomplice in the intended murders of Vancouver police Officers Lawrence Zapata and Adam Millard.
At a hearing on Feb. 15, Deputy Prosecutor Kristine Foerster addressed the court concerning Bianchi’s sentencing hearing and setting a date for a new trial on the undecided charges. She said outside the courtroom that retrying defendants in such a way is her office’s general course of action.
“We aren’t dismissing the charges,” she said.
Bianchi had to decide whether he would be sentenced on his convictions before or after the retrial. Those charges include two counts of second-degree attempted murder; two counts each of first-degree robbery, second-degree assault, attempting to elude police and possession of stolen property; and one count of second-degree malicious explosion.
Court documents show Bianchi decided to waive his right to a speedy trial.
On Thursday, Judge Bernard Veljacic, who presided over the trial, granted the prosecution’s request to set a new trial date of June 20.
Bianchi has already spent more than 20 years in prison for his crimes. After his arrest, he had pleaded guilty to 13 counts in connection with the robbery at a former SeaFirst Bank branch on East Mill Plain Boulevard and been sentenced to 72 years in prison.
But in February 2017, the Washington Court of Appeals vacated his convictions on three counts of attempted first-degree felony murder after Bianchi’s attorneys successfully argued that crime doesn’t exist in Washington. (The appellate court said a defendant commits felony murder, regardless of intent, during the commission of a felony crime, such as a bank robbery; it’s impossible to attempt something that’s unintentional.)
Bianchi then withdrew his guilty pleas and opted for a trial on amended charges, including three counts of attempted first-degree murder.
On Oct. 17, 1997, Bianchi, Michael Brock and Aaron Ahern set off a pipe bomb as a diversion behind a Kmart store on Andresen Road. Armed with guns, they then entered the bank about 2 miles away wearing trench coats and ski masks. They made off with several thousand dollars, Foerster said.
As they drove away, their stolen car was spotted by Sgt. Hogman, who gave chase. While Bianchi drove, Ahern and Brock fired at the officer out of the car windows. They also tossed a grenade at a police cruiser occupied by officers Zapata and Millard, but it didn’t go off, according to the prosecutor.
Bianchi crashed the stolen car on Blandford Drive and a gun battle ensued. Ahern and Brock were killed. Bianchi escaped into a wooded ravine, only to be captured a short time later near Fort Vancouver High School.
