Oregon Public Broadcasting

Wednesday in Salem, attorneys are scheduled to make opening statements in the trial of Joshua Turnidge and his father, Bruce.

The Turnidges are accused of building the bombs that killed two policemen and injured two other people at a bank in Woodburn in 2008.

December 12, 2008 was as lethal a day as Oregon’s law enforcement community has ever experienced.

Eric Mellgren: “When that bank bombing occurred, I instantly thought about the police officers’ families, and the impact it had on their organizations and their communities.”

Eric Mellgren is a former Medford police chief who now lectures Criminology at Southern Oregon University in Ashland.

He’s talking about the deaths of Oregon State Trooper William Hakim and Woodburn Police Captain Tom Tennant. They were killed as they examined a homemade device found in a dumpster between two adjacent banks in Woodburn, right off the I-5 interchange.

Eric Mellgren: “It’s one of the more unsettling events, obviously not only because police officers lost their lives, but any kind of explosive device can be so random and kill pretty much anyone in proximity.”

Woodburn Police Chief Scott Russell was seriously injured in the blast. And a West Coast bank employee took some shrapnel in the leg.

Details on the case are scant, since Judge Thomas Hart has placed all parties under a gag order. But court affidavits trace investigators’ theory that Joshua Turnidge was the man seen on a Wal-Mart security camera in weeks before the bombing, buying pre-paid cell phones and airtime cards like the ones used in the bomb.

Detectives said they found other materials that matched the bomb’s parts at Bruce Turnidge’s home outside the south end of Salem.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. The Turnidges have pleaded not guilty, using separate defense teams. That’s typical procedure, according to Doug Beloof, professor at Lewis and Clark Law School.

Doug Beloof “The Supreme Court has a saying that, ‘Death is Different’. There are rare cases where the same defendants have similar attorneys, But there is an almost inherent conflict in the defense of defendants. One may want to plead, the other may not want to.”

Beloof says prosecutors must show the Turnidges intentionally killed Hakim and Tennant.

If the Turnidges were found guilty, the case could qualify for the death penalty.

Prosecutors would have to make additional arguments about the bombing’s intent, provocation for the crime, and any threat the defendants pose.