3A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN MONDAY, FEBRUARY 29, 2016
OREGON WOMAN’S DISAPPEARANCE
New mystery replaces the old
Detective thinks
car went over
JXDUGUDLOÀLSSHG
By CHELSEA GORROW
The Register-Guard
EO Media Group
Samuel Valdez listened to testimony during his trial in
Wahkiakum County Superior Court last week. Valdez
was charged with trying to hire a hitman, illegally pro-
ducing and selling marijuana products, and burning
down a neighbor’s home.
Former Altoona man
awaits sentencing in
murder-for-hire plot
jury reached a verdict. Val-
dez’s mother, sister, and girl-
friend, Katie Commons,
of Altoona, sat in the front
By NATALIE ST. JOHN row. Robbins, her son and
EO Media Group
their supporters sat two rows
behind them. The courtroom
CATHLAMET,
Wash. ZDV VLOHQW DV D FRXUW RI¿-
— A jury found a former cial read the verdicts. Valdez
Altoona man guilty Friday was found guilty of arson,
of murder for hire, arson and ¿UVWGHJUHH VROLFLWDWLRQ WR
marijuana-related charges commit murder, delivery of
in a plot that targeted his marijuana and marijuana pos-
ex-wife.
session with intent to manu-
Samuel Fredrick Valdez, facture or deliver.
64, was arrested last July fol-
As
the
convictions
lowing a Cowlitz-Wahkia- piled up, Robbins and her
kum Narcotics Task Force friend gasped and gripped
investigation and subsequent each other’s arms, but Val-
raid on his home that uncov- dez’s stunned relatives sat in
ered large quantities of mari- silence and Valdez sat erect in
juana and marijuana byprod- his seat and remained stony-
ucts with an estimated street faced. It was not until he was
value of more than $100,000. led from the courtroom that
Key to the investigation he began to show any sign of
were three recordings made emotion.
E\ D FRQ¿GHQWLDO LQIRUPDQW
A bailiff stood between
who told the task force that the Robbins family and Val-
Valdez had asked him for dez as he was ushered back
KHOS ¿QGLQJ D KLWPDQ ZKR to his jail cell. His family and
could murder his ex-wife, attorney quickly left without
Elizabeth Robbins, and pos- making any comment.
sibly others, too.
Robbins and her compan-
In
court,
Valdez’s ions quickly left the court-
defender,
Tacoma-based room to meet with Dep-
attorney Wayne Fricke, cast uty Prosecutor Sue Bauer,
doubt on the informant’s who handled the state’s case
credibility and motives. Wit- against Valdez.
nesses for the defense said the
“We were so relieved,
informant’s real interest had because we were going
been in edging Valdez out of to move if he wasn’t con-
the lucrative business of pro- victed,” said Kathy Cantrell,
ducing marijuana concentrate one of Valdez’s Pillar Rock
for a growing market.
Road neighbors, whose home
Whatever the informant’s burned to the ground a week
motives, they weren’t enough DIWHUVKHWHVWL¿HGDJDLQVW9DO-
to make the jury disregard the dez during his divorce trial.
damning recorded conver-
Elizabeth
Robbins
sations, the testimony of his emerged a moment later with
ex-wife and others, and evi- tears of relief in her eyes, and
dence that suggested Valdez gave Cantrell a long hug.
printed out photographs of
“We’re free,” she said.
Robbins’ house and face right A close friend of Robbins
around the time the informant added, “And safe!”
said Valdez made a down
Valdez’s sentencing hear-
payment on the hits with a jar ing has been tentatively
of marijuana oil.
scheduled for March 14
After deliberating for in the Wahkiakum County
seven hours, the 12-person Courthouse.
Found guilty
of four crimes
Judge rules inmate not
responsible for restitution
By KYLE SPURR
The Daily Astorian
The two inmates who
tried escaping from Clatsop
County Jail last summer have
each been on the hook to pay
off more than $2,100 in res-
titution for the damage they
caused.
Kevin Michael Burnham
and Anthony Craig Osborne
were accused of breaking off
a shower drain grate, tying
it to a bedsheet and swing-
ing it against a window mul-
tiple times until the window
shattered. Both are serving
prison sentences related to
the escape incident and other
previous charges.
Osborne, 25, of Seaside,
successfully argued in Clat-
sop County Circuit Court
Friday that he should only
have to pay for damage he
caused to a smaller window
a few days prior to the escape
attempt. He claims he was
not involved in damaging the
larger window.
“That’s what I was
accused of, but I was never
convicted,” Osborne said via
video link from prison.
Judge
Philip
Nel-
son agreed, and ruled that
Osborne will be responsi-
ble for paying $673 for the
smaller win-
dow. Burn-
ham, 26, of
Seaside, will
be responsi-
ble for pay-
ing off the
r e m a i n i n g Anthony Craig
Osborne
restitution.
T h e
$2,154.73 restitution amount
covers the temporary and
SHUPDQHQW ¿[HV WR WKH WZR
windows involved.
Burnham pleaded guilty
WR ¿UVWGHJUHH DWWHPSWHG
escape for the jail incident.
Osborne pleaded no con-
WHVW WR ¿UVWGHJUHH FULPLQDO
mischief.
During
the
escape
DWWHPSWWKHLQPDWHVÀRRGHG
a toilet in a cellblock and
DGGHGVRDSWRPDNHWKHÀRRU
slippery for any responding
FRUUHFWLRQVRI¿FHUV
Their plan was foiled
RQFH D FRUUHFWLRQV RI¿FHU
VWDUWHG KHDULQJ WKH PXIÀHG
thumping sound of the grate
hitting the window. A cou-
ple of more swings and the
inmates could have broken
through the window, which
is large enough for them to
climb out.
7KH RI¿FHUV GHWDLQHG WKH
inmates and placed them in a
more secure part of the jail.
vehicle spun counterclockwise,
landing on the embankment,
then continued into the pond,
investigators have concluded.
Damage consistent
with theory
body was discovered, Silano
said.
Detectives found no evi-
dence to suggest that any other
person or vehicle was involved
in the crash.
Silano said he does not have
any evidence to suggest Perry
was suicidal and, even if she had
been, “no one would have fore-
seen that they could have pulled
that off,” he said, referring to the
way in which her car sailed over
the onramp and guardrail.
“There’s no guarantee that it
would have happened like this.
No one would have thought,
µ2K,ZLOOMXVWÀ\RYHUWKLVDQG
land in this pond,”’ Silano said.
“So there’s nothing suspicious
and we don’t think she was try-
ing to hurt herself.
“Why it happened, we just
don’t know.”
The vehicular damage is
consistent with that theory,
EUGENE — An observant Silano said, as the front of Per-
driver, a summer drought and ry’s car had pop-up headlights
two rear tires peeking out of a that were not damaged, but
pond.
would have been had she hit
That’s all it took last fall to anything head-on.
put one big mystery surround-
The windows were shat-
ing the disappearance of Linda tered, consistent with hitting the
Lee Perry — and her remains tree with the top of the car, and
— to rest.
the roof of the car was caved
Perry, who had vanished in from the front to the back,
eight years earlier, was an acci- further suggesting that the car
dent victim, police concluded. struck the tree vertically, Silano
No foul play. Case closed.
said.
But a new mystery emerged
If a car had simply traveled
WRUHSODFHWKH¿UVWRQH+RZGLG off the road at a normal speed,
Perry wind up in the pond with-
out damaging a guardrail and
‘Why it happened,
without anyone witnessing the
crash?
we just don’t know.’
How does a person go miss-
ing all those years, only to be
David Silano
found near a busy interchange in
Lane County sheriff’s detective
an urban area?
It would take several weeks
of investigation before detec- it would have lost speed on the
The Pond
WLYHVIHOWFRQ¿GHQWLQSURYLGLQJ grassy median, so Perry’s foot
,W ZDV SP RQ 2FW
their theory on how the accident presumably would have had to 26 when a driver passing the
occurred.
have been pressed on the gas pond on Northwest Express-
“We believe the car went air- pedal — hard — to launch the way noticed something odd.
borne over the guardrail,” said car over the onramp, Silano said. Two rear tires were sticking up
Lane County sheriff’s Detective
There was some rain or driz- out of the water on the pond’s
David Silano. “We go back to zle that day, and the indicators east end.
look where she went in at, and on her recovered car show that
A Lane County sheriff’s
there is only one way we can her windshield wipers were on deputy arrived to investigate.
surmise she could have done it.” “low.” Still, it’s probable that He in turn called in a sheriff’s
the grassy median was mostly dive team member to see if any-
Where to look?
brown and dry at that time of one was inside the vehicle.
When Perry, 59, a resident year, thus making it easier for
A little more than an hour
of Junction City, disappeared a car to maintain or gain speed later, the dive team member,
in 2007, no one quite knew while traveling over the median. Matt Conrad, was in the water
where to look for her — until
It’s unclear exactly when but unable to see inside the car
an unusually dry year revealed Perry left her friends’ home in because of the pond’s silt and
those tires peeking out of the 6SULQJ¿HOG EXW LW PD\ KDYH lack of clarity, a sheriff’s report
water off Northwest Express- been late afternoon or early eve- states.
way near Randy Papè Beltline ning. However, her car’s head-
So, a tow truck was called to
last October.
lights were not turned on when haul the Honda out of the water.
Perry was headed west on she plunged into the pond. She
Meanwhile, a record’s check
Belt Line Road — as the high- was wearing a seatbelt.
of the license plate revealed
way was known at the time —
who the car belonged to —
when her car went off the road.
Never know with
Linda Lee Perry, missing since
She had left home that day to
certainty
2007.
YLVLWVRPHIULHQGVLQ6SULQJ¿HOG
Detectives will never know
Just before 7 p.m., the tow
and go shopping in Eugene.
with certainty that Perry didn’t truck pulled the car to the north
Detectives believe Perry’s fall asleep or suffer a medi- side of the pond. The skeletal
car, a blue 1987 Honda Prelude, cal problem, such as a stroke UHPDLQVZHUHYLVLEOHIRUWKH¿UVW
must have left the roadway and or heart attack, right before the time.
crossed onto a grassy median, crash, Silano said.
Other human bones were
and then a highway onramp
Nor will they ever know found on the bottom of the pond,
berm, before vaulting over the if drugs or alcohol were fac- mixed with dirt and gravel, the
onramp and clearing the guard- tors, or if Perry died as a result report says. They were collected
rail that protected the pond.
of drowning, a medical issue or and taken to a hospital for iden-
The car then “pitch-poled” from the impact of her car strik- WL¿FDWLRQ E\ WKH /DQH &RXQW\
²ÀLSSHGHQGRYHUHQG²LQWR ing the tree and then the pond. medical examiner.
D¿UWUHHGHWHFWLYHVEHOLHYH
That’s because only skeletal
Prior to having gone miss-
Once striking the tree, the remains existed by the time her ing, Perry had undergone back
surgery to fuse two of her ver-
tebrae together. The serial num-
ber on the plate used to connect
the vertebrae is what the med-
ical examiner used to identify
the skeletal remains found in
the pond.
The disappearance
A missing person report
issued by Junction City police
shortly after Perry had gone
missing sheds some light on her
personal situation. She was in
ill health at the time she disap-
SHDUHG ZKLFK RQO\ LQWHQVL¿HG
family and friends’ concern for
her well-being.
Perry’s husband, Gerald
Ballard, “said Linda had prob-
lems keeping weight on,” Junc-
tion City police detective Corey
Mertz said in the report. Ballard
said Perry had weighed as little
as 80 pounds in the past.
In fact, Perry was on daily
medications for health prob-
lems, she wore dentures, and
had previously battled a drug
addiction to heroin, on which
she had overdosed multiple
times, the report states.
Perry’s son, William Perry,
feared his mother had gone
somewhere, overdosed and
died, the report said. William
Perry this month did not return
messages seeking comment on
his mother’s disappearance and
the recovery of her remains.
Perry was last seen between
10 a.m. and 11 a.m. on Sept.
30, 2007, by Ballard. She was
not reported missing until more
than a month later, on Nov. 4, by
KHUVRQ¶V¿DQFqH.LOD+RZDUG
according to Mertz’s report.
Ballard, who could not be
reached for comment, was not
initially concerned about Linda
Perry’s absence, Mertz wrote in
his report, because she “had a
history of leaving relationships
without giving notice. ... He
VDLGDW¿UVWKHWKRXJKWµVKHOHIW
me,’ but she did not take any of
her clothing.”
Ballard told Mertz, the
report states, that a year prior
to her disappearance, Perry had
left without telling him and was
gone for three days.
Ballard also told detectives
that, on the day his wife went
missing, he had given her his
debit card for her shopping trip
in Eugene, and later learned she
had withdrawn $80 from the
U.S. Bank in Junction City that
day.
Ballard canceled the debit
card a week later. It was found
in the bottom of the pond with
Perry’s remains.
State Senate approves banking for pot dealers
earlier this month in the House,
56-3. It will remove criminal lia-
bility for providing banking ser-
SALEM — The state Sen- vices under Oregon law, though
ate approved legislation Friday it gives no protection against
that removes criminal liability federal prosecution. The bill
IRU SURYLGLQJ ¿QDQFLDO VHUYLFHV now awaits Gov. Kate Brown’s
to marijuana-related businesses. signature.
The bill, by state Rep.
Entrepreneurs who have
taken advantage of the state’s Tobias Read, D-Beaverton, also
new legalized recreational pot allows the Oregon Liquor Con-
laws have had to rely on cash trol Commission and the Ore-
transactions, raising security gon Health Authority to provide
issues and concerns about how ¿QDQFLDO LQVWLWXWLRQV ZLWK FRQ-
to collect taxes on sales without ¿GHQWLDOLQIRUPDWLRQRQOLFHQVH
the convenience of a checkbook and permit holders in the mar-
ijuana industry. The informa-
and a bank account.
State and federal laws largely tion would otherwise be exempt
restrict banks and credit unions from public disclosure.
The liquor control commis-
IURP SURYLGLQJ ¿QDQFLDO VHU-
vices to pot-related businesses sion regulates recreational pot,
because the federal govern- while the health authority over-
PHQW VWLOO FODVVL¿HV PDULMXDQD sees the medical program.
Read said the bill would
as a Schedule 1 drug. That clas-
VL¿FDWLRQLVGH¿QHGDVWKHPRVW reduce the risk and liability to
dangerous drugs at high risk for ¿QDQFLDO LQVWLWXWLRQV DQG GLUHFW
abuse in the Controlled Sub- the Department of Consumer and
Business Services to study other
stance Act of 1970.
The emergency bill passed ways to overcome obstacles to
Friday in the Senate 18-6, and DFFHVVLQJ¿QDQFLDOVHUYLFHV
By PARIS ACHEN
Capital Bureau
6RPH ¿QDQFLDO LQVWLWXWLRQV
such as Maps Credit Union in
Salem, have already taken the
risk of serving marijuana busi-
nesses. Maps serves cannabis
dispensaries, said Kevin Cole,
WKH LQVWLWXWLRQ¶V FKLHI ¿QDQFLDO
RI¿FHU
The legislation still can’t
protect banks and credit unions
from lawsuits leveraging fed-
eral statutes against organized
crime. Such lawsuits have
sought to stop the cannabis
industry in other states such as
Colorado.
The Legislature passed a
resolution last year urging Con-
gress to lift restrictions on pro-
YLGLQJ ¿QDQFLDO VHUYLFHV WR
the marijuana industry and
to declassify marijuana as a
Schedule 1 drug.
U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley,
D-Oregon, and U.S. Rep. Earl
Perlmutter, D-Colorado, last
year introduced the Marijuana
Businesses Access to Banking
Act to allow legal marijuana
businesses to access banking
services. The legislation found
some support in the House but
has yet to receive any action in
the Senate.
The Capital Bureau is a col-
laboration between EO Media
Group and Pamplin Media
Group.
W A NTED
Alder and Maple Saw Logs & Standing Timber
N orth w es t H a rdw oods • Lon gview , W A
Contact: Steve Axtell • 360-430-0885 or John Anderson • 360-269-2500
Pelican Brewing Company is coming to
Cannon Beach and we want YOU on our TEAM!
H IRI N G FAI R
Feb 27th & March 12th 10:00am – 2:00pm
NEWS TALK FOR THE COAST
Providing live a nd loca l new s covera ge every da y
Y ou could see it ton igh t, rea d a bout
it tom orrow or h ea r it live N O W !
1371 SW Hemlock, Cannon Beach 97110
Fill out an application, interview with a manager,
meet our Team Pelican! Assistant Kitchen Managers,
Line Cooks, Dishwashers, Front of House Managers,
Servers, Bartenders, Hosts, Bussers, Janitorial - or
apply today:
www.yourlittlebeachtown.com/employment
Call Stephanie 503-965-7779 ext 307