Allinger - Rasmussen : Update
stew...@yahoo.com
Defendant's alibi hinges, in part, on when Cindy Allinger's mother cleaned her vehicle
John Gillie
Whether Guy Matthew Rasmussen is convicted and sentenced to die for
murdering 9-year-old Cynthia Allinger might well depend on when her
mother washed her car the day the girl disappeared.
The timing of that simple act 28 months ago has emerged as the pivotal
fact in the aggravated-murder case against the 32-year-old former rock
band member.
The jury, now hearing its fifth week of testimony, will decide whether
Rasmussen is acquitted of murdering and raping the Lakewood girl in a
trial expected to continue into the new year.
More than 200 exhibits, ranging from clothing to autopsy samples, have
been offered into evidence.
Dozens of prosecution witnesses, from detectives to teenagers who
searched for the girl's body, have testified as prosecutors built their
case.
But despite the panoramic view of the case, the lengthy testimony and
numerous exhibits, the jury's belief about the time Rhonda Plank,
Allinger's mother, washed her car July 4, 1996, could make all the
difference.
That's because Plank has consistently told detectives and lawyers she
last saw her oldest daughter as she prepared to wash her car that day.
Both prosecutors and defense lawyers agree that moment marks the
beginning of the period in which the child's killer abducted her, took
her to an abandoned house, raped her, broke her jaw, then smothered her
by stuffing her underpants down her throat. The killer then covered her
body with carpet scraps in a brushy, sheltered area near the old house,
placed an old water tank atop the pile and left her body to decompose.
But as consistent as Plank has been in saying she last saw her daughter
when she was getting ready to clean her car, she has been inconsistent
about what time it was.
She told the case's lead detective, Theresa Berg, in an initial
interview that she had washed the car at 12:30 p.m. Later in that same
interview, she told Berg she washed the car at 4:30 p.m.
On the witness stand, she told prosecutors she thought she last saw her
daughter about 3 p.m., but then told the defense on cross-examination it
could have been closer to 4:30 p.m.
In opening statements last month, Rasmussen's chief defense counsel,
Fred Leatherman, showed the jury an elaborate time line that purportedly
showed Rasmussen had no time to commit the crime the day the prosecution
said Allinger died.
''Mr. Rasmussen had an absolute iron-clad alibi,'' Leatherman said. "He
could not have committed this crime.''
In her opening statements, Pierce County deputy prosecutor Lisa Wagner
told jurors Plank last saw her daughter about 3 p.m. Leatherman
suggested in his time line that their last contact was about 4:30 p.m.
While they differed on that issue, both prosecutors and defense lawyers
agreed Rasmussen's whereabouts were positively established after 4:15
p.m.
"It's true that after 4:15 on that afternoon, the defendant does in fact
have an alibi, but the evidence in this case is going to show that
Cynthia Allinger was dead long before 4:15 that afternoon,'' Wagner told
jurors.
But Leatherman contends that even if he concedes Plank last saw her
daughter at 3 p.m., Rasmussen could not have abducted the girl, walked
with her a half-mile to the abandoned house, raped her, killed her,
covered up her body, then walked another mile to the convenience store
where he made a phone call to a friend to give him a ride home.
Phone records of that call and his friend's testimony have established
Rasmussen's whereabouts at 4:15 p.m.
That friend had another friend pick up the defendant at the convenience
store. The two arrived at Rasmussen's home about 4:45 p.m.
From then until he left with his girlfriend and a housemate to go to a
rock festival at Thurston County's Rainbow Valley after 6:30 p.m.,
Rasmussen didn't leave his home, friends testified.
Detectives didn't find Allinger's decomposed body for nearly two weeks
after she disappeared, though several search parties including one
equipped with a scent-detecting dog passed near the site where her body
was hidden.
The defense contended in its opening statement that the girl's body
wasn't placed under that pile of carpeting until several days after her
disappearance, but prosecutors maintain she died July 4.
Though Rasmussen's alibi defense is proving nettlesome for the
prosecution, prosecutors have just begun to reveal the evidence that
could prove to be their greatest strength: DNA evidence that strongly
suggests that Cindy Allinger's blood was smeared on both a pair of
cutoff shorts and tie-dyed T-shirts seized from the unused bathtub where
the defendant stored his wardrobe.
The senior prosecutor in the case, Barbara Corey-Boulet, said the
prosecution's case will likely take at least three more weeks to present
with more physical and documentary evidence to be presented.
Already more than 200 exhibits clutter the front of Judge Karen
Strombom's courtroom. Some are corralled in old shopping carts, others
are stacked in paper bags on tables and yet others are piled atop the
lower portions of the bench.
Once the prosecution's case is done, Rasmussen's lawyers will begin
their witnesses, some three dozen at last count.
With expected court holidays, the case is not expected to conclude until
well after Jan. 1.
- - -
SIDEBAR: Defense time line in Allinger murder case
July 4, 1996:
* 1 p.m. - Cynthia Allinger leaves her home to play with friends.
* 4:15 p.m. - Guy Rasmussen telephones a friend, Jay Kuerst, from a
convenience store at 108th Street Southwest and Bridgeport Way Southwest
to seek a ride home.
* 4:30 p.m. - Rhonda Plank sees daughter Cynthia as Plank begins to wash
her car. (The prosecution contends this happened earlier in the
afternoon.) The girl talks with her briefly, then leaves again. Kuerst's
friend, Gary Cormier, picks up Rasmussen at the convenience store.
* 4:45 p.m. - Cormier drops off Rasmussen at his home.
* 6:45 p.m. - After showering and shaving, Rasmussen leaves for Thurston
County's Rainbow Valley with friends. He will remain there for three
days until police pick him up.
* 11 p.m. - Rhonda Plank calls 911 to report her daughter missing after
several hours of trying to find the girl.
The Tacoma News Tribune
JBrown6000
Defendant's alibi hinges, in part, on when Cindy Allinger's mother cleaned her
vehicle
>>
**Thanks for keeping us updated on this case. Weren't there other little girls
kidnapped, assaulted, and murdered about the same time in that area?
jb
stew...@yahoo.com
>**Thanks for keeping us updated on this case. Weren't there other little girls
>kidnapped, assaulted, and murdered about the same time in that area?
That could be, around that time I wasn't reading any papers from that area.
Stew