A 61-year-old man whose 1991 murder conviction in Eugene was thrown out by the state Department of Justice last month due to flawed evidence is expected to walk out of custody on Friday.
A Lane County judge late Thursday granted Robert Wallace Lyons’ motion for pretrial release, finding no direct evidence linking him to the killing, though Lane County prosecutors said they plan to retry him.
“Having spent more than half of his life in prison for a conviction the State itself recognizes was secured through evidence no court would admit today, Mr. Lyons respectfully seeks the opportunity for release,” argued Caitlin Plummer, Lyons’ criminal defense lawyer, in court papers.
Circuit Judge Jay A. McAlpin issued a written ruling a day after holding a release hearing. He concluded that there is no clear or convincing evidence that Lyons killed Lori Marlene Stabenow, 24, at a motel in Eugene.
The judge set Lyons’ bail at $250,000 and ordered electronic monitoring upon his release.
“There was no direct evidence of Mr. Lyons’ responsibility for the murder of Ms. Stabenow offered in the release hearing,” the judge wrote. “There is no confession, no statements of direct witnesses, no video, there is no forensic evidence tying Mr. Lyons directly to the murder and no motive presented.”
Attorney Janis C. Puracal, who was successful in getting Lyons’ murder conviction thrown out, said she expects Lyons will walk out of Lane County Jail by noon if she is able to complete the paperwork for him Friday morning.
Puracal is the executive director of the Forensic Justice Project, a nonprofit that helps defense lawyers understand and challenge misleading or faulty forensic evidence.
Last month, the Oregon Department of Justice found that Lyons’ murder conviction was based on discredited and scientifically invalid bite mark analysis. The case was sent back to the trial court, and Lane County prosecutors elected to retry Lyons in the killing without the bite-mark evidence.
But McAlpin found the state’s evidence lacking. “The entirety of the state’s evidence that was presented at the release hearing is: Mr. Lyons’ DNA on Ms. Stabenow’s fingernail, some hairs that may or may not belong to Mr. Lyons and saliva that also may or may not be Mr. Lyons’ saliva,” the judge wrote in his 13-page decision.
“Because there is no direct evidence of Mr. Lyons’ guilt and the circumstantial evidence presented at the release hearing does not strongly indicate Mr. Lyons’ guilt, the state has failed to meet its burden under (state statute) that the proof of Mr. Lyons’ guilt is evident or the presumption of his guilt strong,” McAlpin wrote.
Stabenow was found dead in Room No. 5 of the Stage Stop Inn in Eugene on Sept. 23, 1989. She appeared to have suffered extreme injuries to her face and neck, and had “brutal” bite marks on her back and buttocks, the judge’s opinion said. She was found lying on a bed, nude from the waist down.
Lyons was convicted in the killing two years later based on faulty bite mark evidence. A forensic odontologist determined that the killer had made the marks on Stabenow’s body and that the marks matched Lyons’ teeth.
Evidence indicated Lyons and Stabenow had consensual physical contact at some point prior to her killing, and that at some point she had sat on his lap and gave him a “quick kiss.” But that was the extent of the state’s direct evidence, the judge found.
The only evidence that prosecutors provided in arguing that Lyons remained a danger to others were seven photos of Stabenow’s body, the judge noted.
“The photos are shocking. Even nearly forty years later, any feeling person should feel shock and horror when faced with Ms. Stabenow’s murder and sympathy for the impact this crime had on her friends and family,” McAlpin wrote.
“The court agrees that the photos present clear and convincing evidence that the person who committed this crime is a danger to the community. However, the evidence presented by the state in this hearing does not establish by clear and convincing evidence that the person who committed this offense is Mr. Lyons.”
The 1991 murder conviction against Lyons was the first to be thrown out under a new Oregon law passed earlier this year that allows those convicted based on bite mark analysis or other flawed scientific evidence to return to court to challenge their conviction.
Lyons is expected to live with a family friend at an approved address and follow a proposed “re-entry” plan. He’s been ordered to have no contact with the victim’s family.
As of Thursday night, he remained held at the Lane County Jail. He pleaded not guilty to charges of aggravated murder, murder and burglary on June 25 after Lane County prosecutors sought to retry him in the case. No trial date has been set.
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