46 “A Bad, Bad Time for Anybody”

“He married for greed, not for love or companionship. And he murdered for money, not for hate or fear or even passion. This man stole to feed his hunger for money. Nine separate times in the past ten years, this defendant has either committed or schemed to commit insurance fraud.”

With those words, deputy prosecutor Susan Storey opened the case against Randy Roth on March 10, 1992.

After nearly five months in jail, Randy seemed to have lost a considerable amount of weight. He sat impassively at the defense lawyers’ table, his mustache neat, pale from incarceration, dressed in a conservative suit, wearing his thick glasses. All in all, on the surface he hardly appeared to be the type of man who would have murdered two wives. He fiddled with a yellow legal pad as Storey outlined the evidence the state intended to present.

Storey’s opening statement lasted nearly seventy-five minutes as she took the jury through the events of Randy’s life, starting with his marriage to Cindy and the insurance policies, the events at the lake, then going back to his earlier marriage to Jan and her death, the subsequent marriage to Donna Clift, the courtship of Mary Jo Phillips, the seduction of the Goodwins’ daughter, and finally, the events after Cindy’s drowning.

Three times Storey told the jury that witnesses would say that Randy displayed no emotion as two of his wives were dying. “That, ladies and gentlemen, is but a summary of the evidence you will hear in this case. And as you will see, all of these insurance frauds or schemes to commit insurance fraud point to the defendant’s greed, and explain Cynthia Baumgartner Roth’s death.”

Sullivan called for the regularly scheduled morning recess. As soon as the jury was out of the room, Muenster jumped to his feet and demanded a mistrial based on Storey’s opening statement—chiefly, because of Storey’s discussion of Randy’s demeanor.

“For the record,” he said, “the defense would move the court for an order granting a mistrial in this case based upon what I believe was the prosecutor’s cold, calculated and premeditated violation of the court’s orders … to exclude opinion testimony regarding Mr. Roth’s demeanor.”

The trial was only an hour old, and already the defense was saying the jury was so tainted by improper information that a fair trial was impossible. The mistrial was the first of what ultimately would become more than a dozen such motions by the defense before the trial ended.

Brenneman responded to Muenster by saying that no one had offered any opinions about Randy’s behavior, only that the evidence would include the witnesses’ observations of Randy’s behavior, not their beliefs about it. Sullivan agreed with Brenneman.

“Physical descriptions of what they observed or did not observe are perfectly appropriate. The motion for a mistrial will be denied.”

The jury returned to the courtroom, oblivious of the earlier maneuvering. Now Cody gave the opening statement for the defense, retelling the same facts described by Storey but with a benign interpretation. After saying the state was making too much of a series of perfectly understandable events, Cody went on the attack during his conclusion.

“Now,” he said, “the question that will be before you in examining the evidence is … Is the state correct in its theory that Randy Roth chose the hottest day of the year, the most crowded time anybody can remember out on Lake Sammamish, the date where there were powerboats and other people all over the place, to suddenly, premeditatedly, drown his wife in a manner that is yet unclear? Or did she die by accident?

“And under the circumstances, did he do what he could to respond to those circumstnaces as they struck him on that day as those events unfolded around him?

“I think the evidence is going to show you, when you listen to all of it, that the physical signs at the autopsy, the evidence at the scene, that any questions you have about how it occurred could [have been] rectified [if the police had] asked Randy exactly what happened.…

“It was an accident, a terrible accident, to strike anybody,” said Cody. “And when you look at how people respond to death, when they have been through it before, well, it was a bad, bad time for anybody.”