Slaying Witness Wants To Recant Plea

A key prosecution witness in the shotgun slayings of three people on Bainbridge Island will go to Kitsap County Superior Court Feb. 6 to try to withdraw his guilty pleas in two of the homicides.

Douglas John Stanfield said he wants to recant on an agreement with Kitsap County prosecutors in which he pleaded guilty to first- and second-degree murder in the slayings of JayDee Phillips, 23, and Ty McCollough, 18.

Phillips, McCollough and Ann Rice, 19, were killed by shotgun blasts in March 1989 as they sat in a pickup truck at a popular backwoods spot. Under Stanfield's plea agreement, the Rice charge was dropped.

Stanfield was expected to be a key witness in the prosecution of another defendant, Robert Wayne Welsh, 25, who has pleaded not guilty to the three murders. The prosecution agreed to recommend a sentence of 28 years and four months for Stanfield.

Stanfield said in papers filed yesterday in Kitsap County that he was coerced by his attorneys, Eric Lind and Constance Bartholomew, and the plea was involuntary. Lind said yesterday ``there is no question that this plea is valid.''

James M. Roe, a Seattle attorney, has been appointed as a special counsel for Stanfield.