Steven Downs seems within the eighth District Court docket in Lewiston in 2019 together with his lawyer, James Howaniec. His trial within the 1993 homicide of an Alaskan girl concluded with a conviction in 2022. Andree Kehn/Solar Journal file
FAIRBANKS, Alaska — An Auburn man convicted and sentenced this yr for the sexual assault and homicide of an Alaska native girl roughly three a long time in the past was not too long ago appointed a public defender to signify his efforts in searching for a brand new trial.
Stephen Harris Downs, 48, was moved from the county jail in Fairbanks to the Goose Creek Correctional Middle in Wasilla, Alaska, the place he has begun serving his 75-year sentence.
Downs was convicted in February by a jury in Fairbanks, Alaska, of the 1993 homicide and sexual assault of Sophie Sergie, 20, of Pitkas Level, Alaska.
He was sentenced in September for the 2 crimes: 67 years for homicide and eight years for sexual assault.
Downs will probably be eligible for discretionary parole after 25 years.
By his lead trial lawyer, James Howaniec of Lewiston, Downs filed discover in October that he would enchantment his conviction and sentence.
In that discover, he claimed the trial courtroom choose erred in his resolution to disclaim Downs’ movement to suppress statements and proof from trial.
Downs additionally claimed the choose ought to have disallowed at trial so-called third-party DNA proof (from Downs’ aunt.)
The choose mistakenly denied Downs’ movement to dismiss the grand jury indictment charging him with homicide and sexual assault, in keeping with his discover of enchantment.
The trial choose ought to have excluded from trial proof of firearms, knives and different weapons, Downs’ claimed.
Statements made by Downs to legislation enforcement officers have been allowed by the choose at trial in violation of his Miranda warning rights, Downs claimed.
The trial choose mistakenly disallowed Downs to current sure proof of other suspects at trial, in keeping with the appeals discover.
Moreover, Downs claimed his state and federal constitutional due course of rights have been violated by the trial choose who denied a joint movement by the protection and prosecutors to proceed the trial to a later date because of the COVID-19 pandemic, which created “severely compromised circumstances,” in keeping with the discover.
As well as, the choose made “faulty rulings” relating to points regarding proof at Downs’ sentencing, he claimed.
In November, a choose granted the trial attorneys for Downs permission to withdraw from the case and scheduled a listening to to find out whether or not Downs was financially eligible for a court-appointed public defender.
In December, the courtroom assigned a public defender to signify Downs’ enchantment of his conviction and sentence.
Downs had been a freshman on the College of Alaska at Fairbanks in 1993, dwelling in a dorm the place the sufferer was discovered. His room was one ground above the crime scene, the tub space of a ladies’s lavatory.
The case had gone chilly till 2018 when it was revived after Downs’ aunt had submitted her DNA to an organization that matched it in a random hit to semen discovered inside Sergie on the crime scene.
Over three weeks of testimony, greater than 40 witnesses appeared at trial in individual or by videoconference on a TV monitor within the courtroom throughout the trial, which bought underway in mid-January.
The jury returned its verdicts on each expenses after 4 days of deliberations.
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