APPEALS COURT OVERTURNS EGGLESTON MURDER CONVICTION

Judges: Errors Made In Both Trials For Killing Of Pierce County Deputy;
Case Sent Back To County, Which Will Appeal To State Supreme Court Or Try
Case A Third Time

A state appeals court Friday overturned the murder and assault convictions
of Brian Eggleston, who fatally shot Pierce County sheriff's deputy John
Bananola in 1995.Eggleston maintained he shot Bananola in self-defense
during a drug raid at his home. The jury in his first trial, in 1997, hung
on the first-degree murder charge but convicted him of first-degree assault
and four drug counts.

In the second trial, in 1998, a jury convicted him of second-degree
murder.Eggleston is serving a prison term of nearly 49 years.

The Court of Appeals Division 2 said Eggleston didn't get a fair trial both
times and ordered the case returned to Pierce County.The errors included:*
Unfair jury instructions.* Misconduct in the second trial by a juror who
told other jurors about Eggleston's earlier assault and drug convictions.*
Some evidence illegally seized by deputies in the homicide
investigation.Pierce County Prosecutor Gerry Horne, who helped prosecute
Eggleston in his first trial, said he will ask the Washington State Supreme
Court to hear the case and overturn the appeals court ruling.

If that doesn't work, he said, he will try Eggleston a third time."We
expect when it goes to a jury again, again a jury will find him guilty,"
Horne said.When she heard the news, Eggleston's mother, Linda Eggleston,
cried and said, "Thank God." His attorneys, Eric Nielsen and Eric Broman,
called the court's decision "a great day for justice."Glori Manning, the
deputy's former wife, also cried when she heard the news. She worried about
how this will affect Bananola's daughter, Brooke.She said she supports
another trial but added, "Six years later and we have to go there
again?"Pierce County Executive John Ladenburg, who was county prosecutor
during the Eggleston trials, said he couldn't comment because he hadn't
read the decision.

Sheriff's deputies raided the Eggleston home on Tacoma's East Side because
they believed he was selling marijuana. Relying on information from an
informant, they got a search warrant and raided the home Oct. 16,
1995.Wearing dark clothes that identified them as law enforcement officers,
seven deputies entered the home about 8 a.m. Eggleston, who was sleeping
after finishing his shift as a bartender, heard the commotion and a
gunfight broke out. Eggleston later said he thought he was firing at intruders.

During a brief shootout, he and Bananola were wounded, the deputy
fatally.After reviewing the case, the appeals court cited a variety of
errors that included:* In both trials, prosecutors were allowed to give a
jury instruction on use of force by law enforcement officers in the line of
duty. The instruction essentially eliminated Eggleston's ability to claim
self-defense.* After the shootout, deputies should have gotten a second
warrant to investigate Bananola's homicide. They could collect evidence in
plain view but needed another warrant for the thorough search they
conducted."The removal of portions of a television, two walls and the
ceiling constituted a search independent of the initial intrusion and
exceeded the officers' lawful rights of access," the judges wrote.* During
the 1998 trial, one juror knew about Eggleston's convictions from the first
trial.

After Superior Court Judge Leonard Kruse learned this, he replaced the
juror and allowed the jury to continue deliberating.The judge should have
more thoroughly investigated whether the juror's comments had tainted the
others, the appeals court said.The appeals judges backed the sheriff's
department in one of the central issues in the controversial case: Did
deputies have enough evidence to search Eggleston's home in the first place?

The court ruled they did.The judges also upheld Eggleston's drug
conviction, for which he received a sentence of about six years.Monte
Hester, who represented Eggleston during both trials, was pleased by the
decision.

He'd unsuccessfully raised these questions during the trial."We didn't have
a level playing field at either of the trials," Hester said. Ed Troyer, a
spokesman for Sheriff Paul Pastor, said the department was disappointed by
the decision.

Pastor, who was not sheriff at the time of the raid, continues to support
the department's actions the day of the raid."We support Gerry Horne in
whatever actions he decides to take and will fully participate in a new
trial," Troyer said.