SOUTH BEND — The trial of accused killer Thomas A. Shotwell, 27, of Nemah began on Monday, Oct. 9, with jury selection. Eight hundred people were summoned, however only 100 showed up for the selection process.

Testimony began Tuesday, Oct. 10, with deputies from the Pacific County Sheriff’s Office.

Day three of the trial was the most interesting thus far, with a heated back and forth between Shotwell’s co-counsel, John Henry Browne, a Seattle-based defense attorney, and Det. Cory Nacnac. The rookie detective repeatedly expressed opinions in his testimony that were beyond his expertise.

Recap

Shotwell stands accused of shooting his twin brother Raymond A. Shotwell inside their mother’s home at 16 North Nemah Road on June 17, 2021, where their family are well-known oyster farmers. He called 911 around 1:17 a.m. that morning and told dispatchers he had killed his brother. Before deputies arrived, Shotwell left the scene.

Deputies Sean Eastham, Kyle Pettit and Long Beach Police Department Officer Miranda Estrada were the first law enforcement on the scene. They located Raymond deceased in the home’s living room, covered with blankets and boxes. He suffered from multiple gunshot wounds, including several to his head.

The trio also located a .40 caliber handgun, spent shell casings, and a box of ammunition inside the home. On a counter, they found a written will that stated Shotwell was leaving an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle to his father, Steve Shotwell.

At about 4:40 a.m., Shotwell was located by another deputy at a pull-off along Bay Center Road with a loaded AR-15 within his immediate reach. Shotwell was discovered to be unconscious, and after a tactical approach to his vehicle, deputies removed him and began life-saving efforts.

Shotwell was transported to Willapa Harbor Hospital before being transferred to Legacy Health in Vancouver for an insulin overdose. He was in a coma for several days before making a full recovery.

Lead up to trial

Shotwell has been out on $750,000 bail since Oct. 28, 2021, after Browne and co-counsel Nathan Needham of Needham-Glenn Law argued to remove a no-bail hold set by Judge Donald J. Richter.

The extraordinary case moved at a snail’s pace while the defense and prosecution attempted to line schedules with witnesses and experts and complete pretrial assessments.

On Jan. 31, Browne filed a motion that Shotwell intended to use a rare Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity (NGRI) defense, further complicating the already complex case. Dr. Richar Adler, a psychiatrist, and Shotwell’s key expert, diagnosed that the man suffered from a mental state of psychosis during the killing.

According to court records, Adler’s determination is contradicted by Haley Gummelt, a psychologist at Western State Hospital, who sided with the Pacific County Prosecutor’s Office assertion that the killing was premeditated.

Two issues arise

Before the trial even started in front of the jury, Richter addressed two issues.

The first was raised by Browne, who challenged the admission of the AR-15 as evidence in the trial because it was not used in the crime. The prosecution argued the fact it was loaded and in Shotwell’s immediate possession attested to his state of mind.

“When put together with calling law enforcement, fleeing the scene, and preparing the will, and then taking that locked and loaded AR with him, those are all volitional acts, and those are all consciousness of guilt,” Pacific County Prosecutor Michael Rothman said.

“Alright, so this will be the ruling,” Richter stated. “I think that it is probative, the presence of the rifle and the condition that the rifle was in, towards at least steps that were taken through objective-driven behavior that could become relevant to the expert’s discussion of the defenses the court anticipates will be coming.”

Richter’s ruling outlined how the evidence could be visually presented in the courtroom because he didn’t want to parade a “big black scary rifle” in front of the jury. “Not my terms, terms that are sometimes applied to those weapons,” Richter added.

“I don’t think there is a problem with a picture,” Browne added, after also noting he objected to the firearm being in the trial but respected Richter’s ruling.

Second, the judge addressed prosecution concerns about witnesses being present inside the courtroom while the trial was ongoing. Witnesses who are anticipated or scheduled to testify are normally not allowed to be present in the courtroom until they provide testimony and are no longer needed to be recalled.

Pull Quote

‘Your question you will have to answer at the end of this trial is did Tom have intent and the premeditation to kill his twin brother, or were other things at work in his physiological system that affected his brain in such a manner as to make him insane at the time he pulled the trigger and yes, multiple times.’

Nathan Needham, defense attorney

The state’s concerns centered around Shotwell’s parents, Steve and Andrea Shotwell. Richter acknowledged the issue but rejected the assertion they could not be present. Richter ruled that Steve and Andrea are considered victims under Washington law and have a right to be present during the entire trial.

Prosecution opening

Rothman and Senior Deputy Prosecutor Daniel Crawford represent the state. Rothman provided the opening statement for the prosecution and said Shotwell carried out a heinous deliberate attack in which he shot Raymond eight times, including four to his head and two to a shoulder, and blew off a part of the man’s pinky finger.

“Subsequent to these events, Thomas Shotwell was evaluated by defense expert and board-certified adult, child, and adolescence psychiatrist Dr. Richard Adler,” Rothman states. “Much of Richard Adler’s report relied on self-reporting for Thomas Shotwell. Thomas Shotwell self-reported that he had used edible marijuana several times a month to treat knee pain.”

“On the night of the offense, Thomas Shotwell stated he was involved in an argument with his brother about the internet, and it was the first time that he had ever used a marijuana vape pen. Other than that, Thomas Shotwell consistently stated that he had no clear memory of the events that led to the offense. Dr. Richard Adler, the defense expert, opined that Thomas Shotwell’s voluntary use of a marijuana vape pen had caused a severe acute reaction.”

According to Rothman, the defense plans to assert that the reaction caused Shotwell to be entirely out of tune with reality and the cause of his actions. Adler diagnosed Shotwell with Cannabis-Induced Psychotic Disorder, mild neurocognitive problem due to a medical condition, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and unspecified depression.

The state’s mental health expert, Dr. Haley Gummelt, evaluated Shotwell following Adler’s report and concluded that his capacity to perceive and understand his actions was not impaired by mental disease or defect.

“I wanna make sure that you listen to the evidence carefully. The main issue in the case is going to come down to the experts and the experts’ opinion,” Rothman told the jury. “You are free to give the expert’s opinion as much weight or as little as you want. Listen carefully, listen to all of the evidence that is presented, and using common sense and reasonable inferences, decide the facts that the State has proven and in that way decide the case.”

Defense opening

Needham provided the defense’s opening statement, and asserted that the man suffers from three tiers of endocrinological diseases, including Type-1 diabetes and Carpenter Syndrome — a rare congenital disorder — that have significantly affected his brain and have even caused brain damage. Needham also informed the jury that Shotwell reported hearing voices and seeing things that resulted in paranoia months before the incident.

“Your question you will have to answer at the end of this trial is did Tom have intent and the premeditation to kill his twin brother, or were other things at work in his physiological system that affected his brain in such a manner as to make him insane at the time he pulled the trigger and yes, multiple times,” Needham stated.

“This is a difficult case. It is a complex case because, on the surface, it seems very straightforward, but it’s below the surface where we must look to answer that question, and that is why we are here,” Needham added.

Opening testimony

The prosecution called Pettit as the first witness to testify, and he was asked to identify photos he took of the scene, including the room Raymond was found, the loaded firearm, bullet casings, blood splatter, and bone fragments. He also testified about when deputies located Shotwell along Bay Center Road and what they discovered.

“After the firearm was made safe, we go back and clear the residence to make sure there is nobody injured that we missed that was needing help and began to turn on some lights that sort of thing,” Pettit said.

“In the north living room area of the residence, there was a large pile of boxes, and inspecting those boxes, [I saw] what appeared to be a human foot protruding from underneath the boxes underneath a piano that is in that room as well,” Pettit added.

Pettit also testified that he called for his colleagues and photographed the area where a head might have been before moving the boxes and located Raymond deceased with three gunshot wounds to the head and one to the neck.

“At that point, with the large pool of blood, coagulated blood that was on the ground, and the gunshot wounds to the head, it was obvious that the individual was deceased,” Pettit stated.

Officers then turned their attention to Shotwell, who they determined had fled in his 2006-07 Toyota Tundra down Bay Center Road because then-sheriff Robin Souvenir had passed a vehicle matching the description while he responded to the scene from his home in Bay Center.

Shotwell was found about 7.5 miles from the scene in a pull-off on Bay Center Road slumped over. At first, officers could not determine if he was alive or dead. Pettit recounted officers taking a cautious, also known as tactical, approach to the vehicle. Once they noticed his condition was critical, including shallow breathing, they broke out a window and pulled him out.

More deputies

Deputies Eastham, Kevin Acdal and Tony Kimball also provided testimony centered on what they observed during the incident. Acdal was the deputy who located Shotwell and was present when he was removed from the vehicle.

Browne cornered Acdal about how the deputies removed Shotwell from the vehicle and whether an abrasion above one of his eyes was caused by them or happened before he was located, possibly during the alleged killing.

“Your testimony, deputy, is that the abrasion that is apparent on Thomas’s head was not apparent in the truck that was apparent later,” Browne asked Acdal. Under questioning, Acdal said the injury wasn’t there before he was removed from the truck, where he was lying unconscious.

“So he was not in any shape to pick up an AR-15 and shoot the police, was he,” Browne asked. After some back and forth, Acdal agreed Shotwell was in no shape to attack officers at that point.

Timeline

Leading up to the trial, little was known about the timeline of the murder, but a friend of Raymond’s, Adam Jordan, spoke with investigators early on and helped them piece together when the incident might have begun. He testified that he was playing Battlefield 4 via Xbox Live virtually with Raymond on June 16 when the man suddenly exited the game around 8:30 p.m.

Jordan sent Raymond a SnapChat at 8:45 p.m. that was never opened. He also alleged at some point that Raymond uttered “what the f***,” but was unable to pinpoint when it was said or why. The jury heard the assertion, and after a hearsay objection by Browne, the jury was ordered to ignore the statement.

Crawford was also advised to stop using leading questions, which resulted in Jordan bringing up the statement.

‘Not an expert’

Browne and Needham mostly held to their opening assertion they would likely not question most of what the prosecution presents and their witness’s testimony. The duo kept up that strategy until Nacnac took the stand.

Nacnac has been with the sheriff’s office since Jan. 7, 2021, and was fresh out of the law enforcement academy when the alleged murder occurred. He was ordered by the sheriff to remain with Shotwell while he was at the South Bend hospital and then at PeaceHealth. Garcia promoted him to detective earlier this year, and he was handed the case, which was stripped from Eastham without a reason being provided.

The controversy with Nacnac came when he described carpeting seized from the home riddled with blood. He attempted to explain where he believed Raymond was sitting “cross-legged” on the floor and how the entire shooting occurred.

Browne cut off Nacnac’s testimony, and Richter ordered the jury from the courtroom, followed by a lengthy sidebar and heated back and forth between the lawyers and Nacnac himself.

“Det. Nacnac has indicated all his training and experience with regards to firearms, guns, and everything else and quite certainly has the education and training to be an expert and render his expert opinion,” Crawford stated.

“I think that’s the issue, counsel; is that you are saying he is an expert in this area and therefore can render an opinion, and of course, the objection is that was not properly disclosed with the supporting documentation required for an expert witness under the discovery rules,” Richter interjected.

“That is specifically why we made our motion…,” Browne stated. “Which you [the judge] granted because it was apparent that this witness was trying to be an expert and give opinions. He is not qualified. The rules also require the endorsement of experts, and he was not endorsed as an expert.

“I believe his brief knowledge and experience with firearms of what, two years, does not qualify him as an expert, and we are going to have opinions from someone who is not an expert as to how the victim died; that would be a mistrial,” Browne added.

Richter ruled that Nacnac was allowed to testify only to his observations and not his opinions about what he thought happened.

Four-day recess

Nacnac’s testimony concluded the third day of the trial, and because the State did not have witnesses ready for Thursday, Oct. 12. Rothman advised the court the soonest they would be prepared to move forward was Monday, Oct. 16, when the Cowlitz County Medical Examiner who conducted Raymond’s autopsy would be available to testify. (Prosecutors rested their case Monday, with details to be reported later.)

At the conclusion of Day 3, Richter made it clear with Rothman that there were still over 30 witnesses on the State’s witness list to be called, and he didn’t want to get in a “moving target” situation. He asked both sides to align their experts.

The trial is expected to conclude this week with testimony from Adler, State rebuttal by Gummelt, and closing arguments. The case could be handed over to the jury for deliberations as soon as Thursday, Oct. 19.