At about 9:30 a.m. on January 11, 1993, 36-year-old K.M., a housekeeper, came to clean a home in La Center, Washington. She left the front door of the residence open so that she could retrieve cleaning supplies from her truck. After 10 or 15 minutes, two men wearing gloves came into the home and attacked her.
One man was blond and tall and the other was smaller with dark hair. K.M. struggled with the men and later told police that she got a better look at the dark-haired attacker because the blonde attacker primarily stayed behind her and held her. The men dragged her to the kitchen, placed duct tape over her eyes, and tied both arms and one leg to the kitchen table.
The dark-haired attacker cut a hole in her pants and raped her with a foreign object. K.M then heard tearing of something that sounded like a condom package. She told police later that the blond man said something like “You don’t have time for that,” and the other replied “Well, I’m not doing her without it.” The dark-haired man then raped her while the blond one held her down. K.M. heard a horn honking and the blond attacker said something like “Come on we got to go, you know that’s our signal.”
After the men fled, she managed to free herself and called 911. She was taken to the hospital where a rape kit was taken. K.M. described the dark-haired attacker as a white man in his early to mid 20’s, 5 feet 10 inches tall, 170 pounds, with dark eyes, medium complexion, and ear length hair that was long around the face. She said the blond man was in his early to mid 20’s, 6 feet one inch tall, 210 pounds and muscular, shoulder-length, dirty blond hair, and a very fair complexion.
The next day, Clark County Sheriff’s Officer Jana Anderson interviewed K.M., and together they created a composite sketch of the dark-haired man. K.M. said she could not recall the blond attacker well enough to draw a sketch of him. The composite of the dark-haired man was distributed in several taverns and stores in the La Center area.
On January 13, 1993, Clark County Deputy Sheriff Todd Baker reported that he took the composite to the La Center police department, and while there, talked with Reserve Officer Brent Murray. Murray told Baker that the composite looked like 28-year-old Alan Northrop. Murray also said that Northrop had an associate named Steve Shade. Baker found a similarity between Northrop’s mug shot and the composite. The report noted that Northrop was wanted on an outstanding misdemeanor warrant out of Cowlitz County.
The police created separate photographic lineups with Northrop and Shade. K.M. was shown the lineups, but was unable to make an identification.
The police discovered that Shade was in the Clark County Jail. Clark County Sheriff’s Detective Donald Slagle had Shade brought to an interview room and immediately realized Shade did not match the description of the blond-haired man. Slagle told Shade that they were investigating a rape in La Center and that several calls had reported that the composite drawing looked like Northrop. Shade denied knowing anything about the rape, but said that he had seen the composite in a tavern and he and his girlfriend thought the composite looked like Northrop. Shade said that before he saw the composite, he happened to cross paths with Northrop. Shade said that Northrop asked if the police had talked to Shade about him.
Shade reported that he said he had not and when he asked Northrop why he had asked, Northrop did not answer. Shade said that 36-year-old Larry Davis was with Northrop and seemed nervous. Shade described Davis and Slagle concluded that the description was similar to that given by K.M. of the blond man.
Slagle pulled a file photo of Davis, and a photographic lineup was prepared and taken to K.M.’s home. K.M. identified Davis as the blond-haired attacker.
On February 2, 1993, Northrop was arrested on the misdemeanor warrant. Police later reported that Northrop was “very upset and argumentative.” When detectives told Northrop that they had had calls identifying him as the man in the composite, Northrop said that some of his friends “jokingly” had told him it looked like him.
On February 3, Davis voluntarily went to the police station. During questioning, Davis said that he was unemployed and had stayed with Northrop in Woodland, Washington until January 22, 1993. Asked where he was on January 11, the day of the attack, Davis said that he was with Northrop, and they went to Woodland to get a case of beer around 9:30 or 10 in the morning.
Davis denied being involved with the crime and agreed to take a polygraph. The police said that Davis showed signs of deception during the polygraph examination and he was arrested.
On March 11, 1993, a live lineup was conducted which included Davis. K.M. viewed the lineup and each man was made to repeat words spoken by the blond man during the attack. K.M. identified Davis and said that her confidence level was a seven or eight out of 10.
On March 17, 1993, Detective Slagle and Detective Ed Kingrey interviewed K.M., and said that she did “o.k.,” and “you did it.” They told K.M. that they were going to go interview someone they thought to be the dark-haired suspect, but they couldn’t arrest him because she had not been able to identify him. She told the officers that if Northrop had been in the photographic lineup she had viewed, then the better alternative would be to have a live lineup.
On April 5, 1993, a live lineup was conducted that included Northrop. About 10 seconds after the viewing began, K.M. turned away and, with an emotional reaction and teary voice, said that she did not need to look anymore. She identified Northrop as the dark-haired attacker.
Northrop was arrested on April 7, 1993. Both men were charged with burglary, rape, and kidnapping.
Davis and Northrop were the only suspects who appeared in both the photographic and live lineups.
On May 10, 1993, Davis went to trial in Clark County Superior Court. K.M. identified him as one of the attackers. The trial lasted two days. On May, 12, 1993, the jury convicted Davis of first-degree burglary, rape, and kidnapping. He was sentenced to 20 years and six months in prison.
On July 6, 1993, Northrop went to trial. K.M. identified him as the dark-haired attacker. On July 8, 1993, Northrop was convicted of first-degree burglary, rape and kidnapping. He was sentenced to 23 years and six months in prison.
Both men filed appeals with the Washington State Court of Appeals and their convictions were affirmed. Davis also filed a federal petition for a writ of habeas corpus, but that was denied as well.
Davis and Northrop contacted the Washington Innocence Project by mail in 2000. The state’s DNA testing statute at the time gave prosecutors the ultimate decision on whether to grant DNA testing in closed cases. The Clark County Prosecutor’s Office opposed the tests for almost six years while Davis and Northrop waited behind bars. In 2005, the law was amended to give judges the power to order post-conviction testing.
After the Washington Innocence Project filed another motion in 2006 seeking DNA testing, Clark County Superior Court Judge Robert Harris, who had presided over the men’s trials, granted testing.
After the court ordered testing, however, the shirt and pants worn by the victim during the assault were destroyed by the Clark County Sheriff’s Office before DNA testing could be conducted on the evidence.
DNA testing was performed on other crime scene evidence, however, including swabs in the rape kit that contained sperm cells and fingernail scrapings taken from the victim after the crime. The results revealed profiles of two unknown men. Northrop and Davis were excluded. Further testing in 2009 showed that the victim’s boyfriend also was excluded.
Davis and Northrop continued to fight for exoneration based on these results. Davis was released on probation on January 4, 2010, three years before the expected termination of his sentence. Four months later, on April 21, 2010, Judge Diane Woolard vacated the men's convictions based on the DNA results, and Northrop was released on bond.
On July 13, 2010, the prosecution dismissed the charges.
In August 2012, Davis and Northrop filed a federal civil-rights lawsuit against Clark County and police officers, including Slagle. During that litigation, a police report was discovered that the prosecution said it had never seen before. That report said that on February 28, 1993, a man named Gregory Usery said that he had seen the composite drawing of the dark-haired man. Usery said he recognized the man in the drawing. He identified the man by name, said they had previously worked together, and still saw each other a few times a week. Usery said the man was living with two other men, one of whom was a child molester.
Curtis Shelton, Northrop's defense attorney at the trial, stated that he was not given the report, and that had been aware of this other suspect, he would have pursued further investigation of that lead.
The lawsuit went to trial in September 2013. On September 27, 2013, after eight days of trial, Clark County agreed to settle the case for $10.5 million, divided equally between Davis and Northrop.
Davis died in 2017.
– Maurice Possley
Posting Date: 08-29-2011
Last Update Date: 05-16-2026
