SPOKANE, Wash. – The trial of a transgender woman accused of killing three prostitutes more than 25 years ago is scheduled to begin this week.
Donna Perry's, previously known as Douglas Perry, trial was delayed in September 2016 due to a possible ethics breach in the Spokane County Public Defender's Office.
Around that time, Perry’s previous attorneys Kyle Zeller, Nathan Poston and Brooke Hagara decided to withdraw from the case. In an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaint against the Public Defender's Office in July of 2016, Hagara said the decision to withdraw came after the three discovered an office investigator acting unethically in attempting to discover information related to the case.
Perry faces three charges of first degree murder. She is accused of killing three Spokane prostitutes in 1990.
In April of this year, Judge Michael Price denied Perry’s attorney’s motion to enter new evidence that could possibly implicate other suspects in the murders. The judge said the evidence was speculative.
The cases were on a list of unsolved homicides until 2012, when Perry was convicted in a federal court for being a felon in possession of a firearm. Her DNA was entered into a national database and linked to the victims.
