SPOKANE, Wash. — A former Pasco police officer who killed a woman in Spokane nearly four decades ago will spend the next 25 years of his life behind bars.
Richard Aguirre was sentenced to 25 years in prison for the 1986 murder of Ruby Doss. Aguirre was found guilty of the murder last December and has been in jail ever since. Because the murder took place in 1986, the judge who sentenced Aguirre had narrow sentencing guidelines to follow and could only impose a sentence between 20 and 26 years.
"I'm not sure how much he understands that he was such an eraser," said LaShunda Doss Walker, the oldest daughter of Ruby Doss. "He changed the trajectory of my life and my sisters' lives in such a major way."
"This is not just a loss for me, it's a generational loss for my future family members," said Latoya Doss, another one of Ruby Doss' daughters.
Ruby Doss' body was found near the old Spokane Playfair Race Course in 1986. For decades, investigators could not find a suspect in her death. That was until 2015, when a forensic scientist matched DNA on a condom found near Doss' body to former Pasco police officer Richard Aguirre. The DNA match coincided with investigators collecting evidence for a rape investigation involving Aguirre in Franklin County. Aguirre was later found not guilty of rape by a jury in 2017.
In 2016, Aguirre was charged with Doss' murder, but due to a lack of evidence, the charge was dropped a year later.
Aguirre was 19 years old at the time of Ruby Doss' (27) death. Police said Aguirre lived in Spokane at the time the murder was committed. He was in the Air Force stationed at Fairchild. He later joined the Pasco Police Department in 1988 and worked as an officer until he retired in 2014.
Investigators say Doss and Aguirre had a "sexual encounter" that turned into a physical altercation, according to court documents. Detectives believe Doss drew a knife at some point during the altercation but was disarmed and ran away to the area where her body was later found. Police said they found Doss' belongings in a manure pit. They also found a steak knife and a used condom, all of which were sent to a DNA lab in 1989 and again in 2001. Neither test returned any matches.
In 2021, Aguirre appeared in court again. Prosecutors believed they had enough evidence to convict him of first or second-degree murder. A mistrial was declared after a jury failed to reach a unanimous verdict.
Two years later, Aguirre found himself in court again for the cold case. This time, he was without a jury after Aguirre waived his right to a jury during a trial in October - meaning the judge would decide if Aguirre was responsible for Doss' death.
The first day of the trial saw one of Doss' daughters speak as a witness, and the following day, prosecutors called former detectives who investigated the murder to the stand.
During the month-long trial, prosecutors argued DNA from the condom found at the crime scene near Doss' body was connected to Aguirre. They also argued that footprints found at the scene matched Aguirre.
Aguirre's defense claimed the DNA from the condom was mishandled and cross-contaminated and that the footprints could not be accurately identified as Aguirre's.
A judge ultimately found Aguirre guilty of first-degree murder for Doss' death. Aguirre's defense attorney has already filed a notice of appeal.
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