State Of Washington v. Santiago Ortuno-perez

¶1 Following a jury trial, Santiago Ortuno-Perez was convicted of murder in the second degree, committed while armed with a firearm. Ortuno-Perez’s planned defense was that another person who was armed at the scene—Austin Agnish—committed the charged offense. Prior to trial, Ortuno-Perez sought permission from the trial court to identify Agnish to the jury as the killer, to cross-examine the State’s witnesses for bias in their testimony, and to introduce additional evidence indicating that a person other than Ortuno-Perez committed the murder. The trial court excluded the evidence and later…