Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include a statement from the Clark County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office.
Jurors in a civil wrongful death lawsuit on Tuesday found a different man liable for a Vancouver woman’s 1989 death than the one convicted of her killing.
The Clark County Superior Court jury found Viktor Pell, 86, caused the death of Eftekhar “Effie” Entezari after more than a week of trial. Entezari’s family filed the wrongful death lawsuit, alleging Entezari’s estranged husband, Mike Entezari, was wrongfully convicted of her killing. Mike Entezari died not long after he was released from a 16-year prison stint in the killing.
The jury awarded the family more than $110,000 in economic damages and $4 million in noneconomic damages.
Effie Entezari was killed May 1, 1989, in the parking lot of her apartment complex at 11614 N.E. 49th St., Vancouver.
The family’s attorney, Renee Rothauge, said during her opening statements that Clark County sheriff’s detectives did not properly consider any other suspects in Effie Entezari’s slaying, besides her husband. Their desire to get enough evidence to arrest Mike Entezari meant they pressured scientists at the Washington State Patrol crime lab to erroneously connect his gun to the crime, Rothauge argued.
The attorneys promised to show the civil jury new evidence that the jury in the criminal case decades ago didn’t get to consider. They said that evidence included DNA left on Effie Entezari’s sweater that could’ve belonged to Pell and could not have belonged to Mike Entezari. Rothauge also said a firearms expert would tell them that Mike Entezari’s gun could not have fired the fatal bullet. The jurors also heard from the couple’s daughter, Pooneh Gray, who has spent her adult life investigating the crime.
Gray took out online, social media and TV ads earlier this year calling for Clark County Prosecutor Tony Golik to reopen the murder case.
Senior Deputy Prosecutor Aaron Bartlett said in an emailed statement the prosecutor’s office will review the evidence presented during the trial. But he said his office will also consider that the verdict was not unanimous, the burden of proof in a civil case is less than that in a criminal case and Pell was not represented by an attorney.
In his opening statement read by an interpreter, Pell said he could not afford an attorney to help him with the case. He said he can understand Gray’s desire to clear her father’s name because, “We all have parents and want to think the best of them.”
But, Pell said, Entezari’s family has the wrong man. He denied any involvement in Effie Entezari’s death.
