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Tag: Walla Walla

  • Ferry runs aground near Seattle; no injuries reported

    Ferry runs aground near Seattle; no injuries reported

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    SEATTLE (AP) — A passenger ferry carrying hundreds of people ran aground near Bainbridge Island west of Seattle on Saturday but there were no reports of injuries or contamination, authorities said.

    The Walla Walla ran aground in Rich Passage around 4:30 p.m. as it was traveling from the city of Bremerton to Seattle, according to Washington State Ferries, a division of the state Department of Transportation.

    “Initial indications are the vessel suffered a generator failure,” but investigators were still looking into what happened, the agency said.

    Passenger Haley Socha told The Seattle Times that the ferry’s lights went out about 20 minutes into the voyage and the engines stopped. The lights came back on after a minute and there was an alarm and an announcement saying the vessel had no propulsion and warning people to brace for impact.

    People helped one another as they donned life vests, Socha said.

    “Everybody’s been really nice and good to each other,” Socha told the Times.

    There were 596 passengers and 15 crew members aboard, according to ferries spokesperson Diane Rhodes. A tug boat and the Coast Guard were on the scene.

    “Vessel engineers believe tide will be at the right height to safely tow the boat at midnight. We apologize to passengers. Their safety is our first priority,” Washington State Ferries said via Twitter.

    Passengers were initially kept onboard. One passenger suffered a medical emergency unrelated to the grounding and necessitated an evacuation, the agency said.

    Around 8 p.m., Kitsap Transit began taking others off the boat, ferry officials said. The transit agency deployed two passenger-only vessels, the Commander and the Waterman, with respective capacities of 250 and 150 passengers, requiring multiple trips to the Walla Walla. Around 8:30, Kitsap Transit reported the Commander had delivered the first load of people to the slip at Bremerton.

    “We’re working on a plan for the vehicles onboard so passengers can retrieve them tomorrow,” Washington State Ferries said.

    A photo taken by a Coast Guard officer showed the Walla Walla near the shore as people looked at it from the beach and snapped pictures. A tug was positioned at one end of the ferry with an apparent Coast Guard boat nearby.

    “No pollution or hull damage detected at this time,” the state Department of Ecology reported. “Ecology responders on the way to the scene.”

    The Seattle-Bremerton route was out of service until further notice, the Department of Transportation said on its website.

    The website lists the Walla Walla as a four-engine, jumbo class ferry with a maximum capacity of 2,000 passengers and 188 vehicles. It is 440 feet (134 meters) in length with a draft of 18 feet (5.4 meters).

    The Walla Walla was constructed in 1973 in Seattle and rebuilt in 2003, according to the site.

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    Associated Press writer Stefanie Dazio in Los Angeles contributed.

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  • Court reinstates guilty verdicts in 1987 killings of couple

    Court reinstates guilty verdicts in 1987 killings of couple

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    EVERETT, Wash. — The Washington state Supreme Court on Thursday reinstated two aggravated murder convictions for a man in the 1987 killings of a young Canadian couple.

    The high court unanimously rejected the defense’s arguments that William Talbott II should be granted a new trial due to one juror’s alleged bias, concluding that defense attorneys could have dismissed the juror ahead of the trial but opted not to, The Daily Herald reported.

    Detectives arrested Talbott, 59, in 2018 after using the then-novel method of forensic genealogy to connect him to the slayings of Tanya Van Cuylenborg, 18, and Jay Cook, 20. A Snohomish County jury convicted him of the killings in 2019, sentencing him to life in prison, but an appeals court overturned that conviction last year due to one juror’s perceived bias.

    Snohomish County prosecutors then appealed that ruling to the state’s highest court.

    Van Cuylenborg and Cook disappeared in November 1987 after leaving their home near Victoria, British Columbia, for an overnight trip to Seattle. Their bodies were found in separate locations in northwestern Washington about a week later.

    Investigators preserved DNA evidence recovered from Van Cuylenborg’s body and pants. Authorities used genetic genealogy in 2018 to identify the suspect as Talbott, who was 24 at the time of the killings and lived near where Cook’s body was discovered.

    Defense attorneys have never challenged the forensic genealogy. The appeal hinged on the seating of juror No. 40.

    Under questioning in jury selection, the woman expressed doubts about her ability to be impartial. Still, she said she would try to be fair and said she was a “fact-based person.”

    Talbott’s defense attorneys did not use their option to excuse her.

    Chief Justice Steven González noted during September oral arguments that the juror hadn’t made a statement that showed unquestionable bias or a blatant conflict of interest.

    “We reaffirm that if a party allows a juror to be seated and does not exhaust their peremptory challenges, then they cannot appeal on the basis that the juror should have been excused for cause,” Justice Mary Yu wrote in the 9-0 decision.

    Talbott has remained in custody since he was arrested four years ago. If the verdicts had not been reinstated, he would have faced another trial. He has been in custody at the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla.

    The case is next expected to return to the state Court of Appeals to address other legal questions raised by the defendant. Talbott’s attorneys also have made arguments about “insufficient evidence,” the “inadequacy of the police investigation” and a series of other alleged missteps at trial, but those were not weighed in the state Court of Appeals’ first ruling.

    Talbott has maintained his innocence.

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