Court Papers Recount Triple Killing -- Documents Show Inconsistencies

PORT ORCHARD, Kitsap County - Widely varying descriptions of a triple killing on Bainbridge Island were made public by authorities yesterday.

The versions of the homicides were contained in more than 100 pages of documents issued after a judge ruled the documents could be revealed after being extensively censored.

The material indicates, among other things, that:

- The three victims in the March 1989 killings might have been killed by accident as part of a plan to avenge a drug theft.

- A metal briefcase containing cocaine might have been given to the killers by one of the victims.

- A chief source of information in the case, also a defendant, has recanted his confession.

At the time of the killings, authorities said the victims - JayDee Phillips, 23, Ann Rice, 19, and Ty McCollough, 19, all of Bainbridge Island - were killed by shotgun blasts fired through the window of McCollough's pickup.

Police and prosecutors have refused to answer specific questions about the killings.

Prosecutors have charged two defendants - Robert Welsh, 25, of Silverdale, and Doug Stanfield, 30, of Everett - with murder.

Kitsap County Sheriff Pat Jones has said the arrest of a third suspect, a Snohomish County resident, was expected this week.

The name of the third suspect, who has not been charged, was deleted in dozens of references throughout the documents. The suspect is identified by name once in a complaint seeking information about calls believed made between August and September among the suspects.

One of the earliest descriptions of the killings was given in a Nov. 14 motion:

``Stanfield indicated that he has been advised by someone else that somebody had borrowed the 4X4 Toyota (in which the victims were found) from one of the victims and had performed a drug ripoff. He has further indicated that the three young persons ultimately murdered were unaware that the vehicle that they were in had been used to perform a drug-related theft.''

Another description was given in a Dec. 26 filing:

``The three were planning to steal cocaine from the kids in the truck.''

After a briefcase containing cocaine exchanged hands, the three victims were shot, according to the filing.In another filing Tuesday, seeking access to records of telephone calls made from Welsh's Bainbridge Island residence, authorities said that since Dec. 26, Stanfield ``has recanted his confession.''

That warrant said several telephone calls were believed to have been made between Welsh, Stanfield and the third suspect on the night of the killings.