Expert witnesses key in murder trial
The fate of a Cheney man could rest on which of the dueling accident-reconstruction experts jurors choose to believe in deciding how a pregnant woman died.
One says the woman, 19-year-old Melissa Saldivar, jumped from a moving car. The other says her boyfriend, 21-year-old John E. Lipinski, kicked her out the passenger door.
In a trial that started Thursday, Lipinski faces two counts of second-degree murder in connection with the Aug. 11, 2004, death of Saldivar, who was the mother of Lipinski’s son and was 7 months’pregnant with their second child.
Although brain dead from massive head injuries, doctors kept Saldivar alive long enough for an emergency procedure to deliver Mataya Shanelle Saldivar, who weighed just 2 pounds, 13 ounces.
Mataya suffered brain damage from a lack of oxygen and died Oct. 1, 2004, after Lipinski made the decision to remove her from life support, according to court documents.
Deputy Prosecutor Steve Garvin said Thursday that a Washington State Patrol accident reconstruction expert will testify that Lipinski kicked his girlfriend out of a moving car, causing the road rash and massive skull fractures that killed her.
“She’ll also describe to you her opinion that the only manner in which Melissa Saldivar could suffer the injuries that she suffered … was that she was seated in the passenger seat of that car with her back up against the door, the door was opened, she was pushed out and she impacted the ground,” Garvin said.
However, Assistant Public Defender John Stine said he will call his own expert to the stand who will testify that Saldivar’s injuries were consistent with what Lipinski said in one of his many versions to police: that she jumped from a car moving about 25 to 30 mph.
“Nothing in this case is going to be as cut and dried as the prosecutor will tell you,” Stine said. “It will be clear that what the state wants you to accept as absolute fact is nothing more than a mere possibility, one of several possibilities that could have happened that night.”
That night started at a party in a house in Spokane where Lipinski and Saldivar were living with friends. Several witnesses told police that Lipinski was drunk, belligerent and was picking fights with others before he was told to leave about 3 a.m. Within an hour, Lipinski arrived at Sacred Heart Medical Center in a car with Saldivar, who was bleeding profusely from the head.
According to court records, Lipinski first told a nurse that Saldivar fell down a flight of stairs. He then said she fell from the driver’s side of the car and then later told police that she fell from the passenger’s side of the car.
Lipinski agreed to show detectives where she fell, but instead drove around for more than an hour and was never able to show detectives where Saldivar suffered the injuries, Garvin said. Detectives were forced to investigate the homicides without a crime scene or witnesses.
In an attempt to show motive, Garvin told the jury about several other times that Lipinski assaulted Saldivar prior to that night.
Stine responded by saying that Lipinski is on trial for murder, not being a bad person, drinking too much or having a bad relationship.
“If you ever wonder how David Copperfield makes an elephant or an airplane disappear before your eyes, it’s all misdirection and diverting your attention from the elephant,” Stine said. Garvin “hopes through misdirection to make you say that Mr. Lipinski is a bad guy and we feel sorry for Ms. Saldivar and this baby, and you should.”
“But when you look at what the state has to offer to prove that he actually murdered them, they have nothing,” Stine said. “This was nothing more than a tragic accident.”