Valdez guilty on all four counts

Friday Bulletin: After deliberating 5.5 hours, a jury found Altoona resident Sam Valdez guilty all counts. Sentencing is tentatively set for March 14.

Valdez is facing a sentence of 17-23 years in prison.

Original story:

The trial of Sam Valdez is in its second week in Wahkiakum County.

Valdez has been charged with solicitation to commit murder in the first degree, delivery of marijuana, possession with intent to manufacture or deliver marijuana and arson in the first degree.

Here are some excerpts from the opening statements by Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Sue Baur and defense attorney Wayne Fricke.

"We are going to start out with testimony," Baur said. "You will hear from witnesses. You will also get to hear or see evidence in the form of pictures, email, texts, things like that. Finally you will hear audio."

Baur gave a history of the events, beginning with the marriage of Sam Valdez and his now ex-wife, which happened in 2002.

According to Baur, Valdez had property on Altoona-Pillar Road Road and the couple began to work on the place together. His wife had come into the relationship with her own property which included a business and a residence.

"Mr. Valdez also had a sailboat," Baur said. "They worked on that for some time, eventually taking trips, just the two of them. About the end of 2012, his ex-wife moved out. It was decided that there would be a divorce. In 2013, they started talking about whether they could settle it without going to trial. They had mediation. They were never able to come to a resolution."

According to Baur, Valdez met a woman in 2014 that he would begin to plan a partnership with to convert dry marijuana into an oil. The woman would market the product and Valdez would take care of production.

"The trial for the divorce was set for June of 2014," Baur said, "and the defendant gets madder about not being able to get what he wants. He has an attorney, Bill Faubion. The trial takes three days. Witnesses are called by the ex-wife's attorney, a couple who lived nearby. They testified to what they knew about the defendant in a transaction with him when they wanted a bid for some work they wanted done. He had the machines and big equipment. The lawyer wanted to show that Valdez didn't really want the work. He didn't have an outside job and didn't work."

"Valdez was angry and frustrated," Baur continued. "He blamed his attorney for not doing a good enough job. The judge said he wanted to think about his decision, and on the 2nd of July, a few days later, Valdez and his ex-wife get an email from their attorneys letting them know the decision. Valdez was so angry. The judge couldn't have made a worse decision. Valdez wanted the property across the road from his property."

According to Baur, Valdez set the neighbor's house on fire. That morning Valdez drove by and asked a neighbor, "Did anybody die?"

Unhappy with the decision about the divorce and the divvying of property, Valdez appealed.

"You'll hear his thinking," Baur said. "Should he kill Beth or one of her kids? He's getting madder and madder. There are people on his list, that he talks about, that he can't abide."

Baur mentioned that listeners would hear Valdez give an informant something during one of the three conversations captured by a wire.

"He gave his friend pictures," Baur said, "and 51 grams of the marijuana product as earnest money to pay for the hit."

According to Baur, a search warrant was served on the Valdez home and they found upwards of 100 ounces of the marijuana oil.

"All of that will make sense at one point," Baur said, "I ask you to keep your mind open."

Then the defense attorney for Mr. Valdez, Wayne Fricke, made his opening statement.

"I'm going to be relatively brief in this case," Fricke said. "I will also ask that you keep an open mind and distinguish between what is argument, what is speculation and what is fact.

He acknowledge that Valdez got divorced from his wife and wasn't pleased with the outcome and that he filed an appeal.

"It is a leap in logic that the evidence is going to show that this disagreement led him to burn down houses or solicit murder or the like," Fricke said. "You are going to hear and see evidence that shows he wasn't interested in doing that type of behavior and never did that type of behavior."

Fricke argued that the motivation to burn the neighbor's home because he was upset with their testimony in the divorce trial was unrealistic because their testimony was irrelevant. He planned to bring the couple in to testify to the matter.

"Suddenly [the informant], who you are going to hear a lot about is going to make a lot of statements about Sam Valdez that aren't going to be supported by the evidence," Fricke said.

Fricke argued that the case was ultimately about Valdez's desire to get into the marijuana business, a matter the lawyer did not dispute.

"Nothing wrong with that legally, though you might have some moral concerns," Fricke said. "He's not the only one who wanted to get involved in this business. Other people wanted to get involved too. [The informant] was one of those individuals. He has denied it at times but evidence will show through his own words that he was extremely upset with Sam for leaving him out of a business that was going to take off in his own mind. You will see those text messages. He was upset with Sam for cutting him out of the business."

Fricke planned to prove that it was the informant who suggested the solicitation to commit murder.

"[Valdez] never says he wants to get his wife killed," Fricke claimed. "[The informant] says it. He's the one that is always bringing it up That is what the evidence will show."