KELSO, Wash. (AP) - A Washington State Patrol auditor testified Tuesday in Frederick Russell's vehicular homicide trial that more than 500 pieces of bodily fluid evidence stored by the patrol crime lab's Seattle bureau were thrown out "without any explanation" and that proper procedures for documenting and destroying samples were not followed.

Sgt. Patricia Lankford described her disappointment with mismanagement of the lab.

Defense lawyers are trying to discredit Russell's blood alcohol test results, which showed a level of .12 on the night of the June 4, 2001, collision that killed three college students. The legal intoxication threshold in Washington is .08.

Lana Weinmann, an assistant state attorney general who is helping prosecute the case, emphasized that although storage of blood evidence may have been mismanaged, the auditor found no evidence of wrongdoing when it came to testing blood samples before storage.

There also is no evidence that the blood samples were destroyed on purpose, Weinmann said.

Defense lawyers have argued that if the samples had been preserved until the end of the case, they could have conducted an independent test on the accuracy of toxicology and medical records.

Russell, 28, is on trial on both vehicular homicide and vehicular assault charges. He's accused of being drunk, speeding, and trying to pass in a no-passing zone when his vehicle was involved in the crash on State Route 270, the highway between the two college towns of Pullman, Wash., and Moscow, Idaho.

Three WSU students were killed and three were injured.

Russell fled to Ireland in 2001, right before his trial was scheduled to start. He was captured in 2005 and later extradited back to the United States.

Also on Tuesday, Whitman County Superior Court Judge David Frazier barred the jury from hearing the contents of a written death threat and a phone threat. Both were reported to police by Russell's father, Gregory Russell.

"Fred, you won't live to see trial," read one "thinking of you" note card left at the front door of the Pullman apartment the father and son shared.

Russell's lawyers contend it was such threats that caused the younger Russell to flee.

But without clear evidence that Russell actually learned of such threats from his father, Frazier said he wouldn't allow the jury to hear the message.

Defense lawyer Francisco Duarte told the judge that one defense witness has serious health problems while another is in the middle of another trial.

To give the defense time to regroup, Frazier gave the jury Wednesday off.

On Thursday, the defense hopes to call Fred Russell's mother, Linda. She and Russell's aunt have spent the past 2½ weeks sitting in the courtroom just behind him.

The trial was moved to southwest Washington's Cowlitz County from Whitman County in southeast Washington because of extensive news coverage.