WA - Arpana Jinaga, 24, raped & murdered, Redmond, 1 Nov 2008

Two years after the killing, the arduous investigation culminated in a charge of murder in the first degree with sexual motivation against Emanuel Fair, a friend of a woman who lived downstairs from Jinaga. Fair, who is also known as Anthony P. Parker, was at the Valley View apartments that night, one of a group of revelers who spent time with Jinaga in her apartment. Investigators believe that sometime between 3 a.m. and 8 p.m., Fair broke down Jinaga’s door, raped, beat, and strangled her, then went to great lengths to try to scrub his DNA from the scene.

Whoever went to those great lengths, genetic material was left behind. Investigators were drawn to Fair because of a criminal history that includes a third-degree rape conviction, but it is the DNA that stands as the prosecution’s strongest evidence.

Justice has not been swift. Six years after charges were filed, Fair, now 33, spends his days shuffling between the King County Superior Court and the county jail while his two defense attorneys fight for a fair trial, a representative jury, and the opportunity to cross-examine key witnesses. The trial is scheduled to begin Jan. 13, 2017, with prosecutors seeking a sentence of 45 years to life.

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DNA evidence has become a ubiquitous crime-solving tool. The gold standard of forensic science, genetic profiles inferred from DNA evidence pave the way to exonerations, confessions, and convictions both on- and offscreen. But while single-donor DNA samples are straightforward to analyze, degraded samples that contain multiple people’s DNA—such as those found at the scene of Jinaga’s murder—are far more difficult to nail down. In fact, the DNA evidence that investigators are relying upon is of such low quality that a few years ago it would have been considered unreadable.

There were other leads. Marc O’Leary, a convicted serial rapist and home invader who is serving a 327-year sentence in Colorado, was active in the area at the time, attacking women in their homes in a manner eerily similar to that of Jinaga’s killer; the detectives didn’t look into the similarities. Serial killer Israel Keyes visited the Seattle area that Halloween weekend, but when the FBI asked Seattle-area law enforcement if they knew of crimes that could have been committed by Keyes, the Redmond detectives didn’t respond.

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Then there is the neighbor. Early in their investigation, detectives cast a wide net but focused much of their attention on the neighbor who discovered Jinaga’s body alongside Jay, going so far as to draft a probable-cause document supported by 48 pieces of evidence.

The suspected neighbor claimed not to recall making two calls to Jinaga on either side of 3 a.m. the night of the murder. Later that morning he went on an unplanned excursion to Canada, only to be turned around at the border. The man told Redmond detectives he had been “kind of wanting to explore.”

In interviews with the police, that neighbor’s friends and family members told detectives they believed it was possible that he had killed Jinaga–-at least three people told detectives that he had expressed concern that he may have gone to her apartment in his sleep. The neighbor revealed to the detectives that he had been off his psychiatric medication at the time of the murder; the investigators neglected to follow up to determine what medication he was prescribed and what condition the drug was intended to treat.

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In a recent court filing, Senior Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Brian McDonald clarified his office’s stance: The evidence implicating the neighbor in Jinaga’s death doesn’t exculpate Fair. McDonald noted that the neighbor may have been involved in the murder and continues to be a “person of interest.” In another court filing, the state described him as an “uncharged accomplice.”

Jinaga’s friends are glad to hear someone is finally being tried for her death. “It’s a long time coming–I didn’t realize this guy was going up for trial,” says Colt Bristow, a friend of Jinaga’s from the PNW Riders. “Glad they’re going forward with it.”

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Arpana Jinaga, a 24-year-old software-quality engineer from India, was building a circle of friends, exploring the region on her motorcycle and reveling in the freedoms afforded her as a professional woman in the United States when she was raped and strangled in her Redmond apartment in fall 2008, eight months after she arrived in the Pacific Northwest, a King County jury heard Tuesday.

More than eight years later, the first-degree-murder trial of Emanuel Fair opened with jurors hearing how Jinaga’s body was doused with bleach, toilet-bowl cleaner and motor oil and her bedding and clothes were torched or flushed with water, all in an effort to destroy DNA evidence.

Senior Deputy Prosecutor Erin Ehlert said during her opening statement that Fair’s DNA was found in places only Jinaga’s killer would have touched.

Defense attorney Paul Vernon countered by telling jurors that DNA belonging to four other men was found on key pieces of evidence, including a shoelace that is the presumed murder weapon.

Jurors, however, are barred from hearing about Fair’s prior convictions for raping a 15-year-old girl and twice failing to register as a sex offender.

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There was a hung jury today in the Emmanuel Fair murder trial, according to the King County Prosecutor’s Office.

“We will review the case over the next few weeks and then make a decision regarding a possible retrial,” said a prosecutor’s office spokesman.

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Following a hung jury last month in the Emmanuel Fair murder trial, the state and defense counsel have requested that the court find good cause to continue the trial date to Sept. 11, 2017, according to the King County Prosecutor’s Office.

The next trial status conference will be June 2.

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Following a hung jury in April, the state and defense counsel requested that the court find good cause to continue the trial date to Sept. 11. A trial status conference was held June 2 and that date was agreed upon.

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Emmanuel Fair’s murder retrial, which was scheduled for Sept. 11 at the King County Courthouse in Seattle, is currently on hold, according to the King County Prosecutor’s Office. There will be a pending discretionary review before the Court of Appeals regarding a matter in the case, and the trial is postponed until the appeal is concluded.

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