DailyAstorian.com // TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2016
144TH YEAR, NO. 88
GUILTY
Jury convicts Roden in Seaside toddler murder
ONE DOLLAR
Writing
in your
vote for
president?
It might not get counted
By STEVE LEBLANC
Associated Press
Some disaffected voters, including a few
public offi cials, have vowed to write in the
name of their ideal candidate rather than pick
among Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump and
other names printed on the ballot.
Most of those write-ins are almost by
defi nition protests votes — whether they’re
for Mickey Mouse or Mitt Romney — but
whether they are actually counted depends
on where a voter lives.
The names of write-in candi-
dates often end up being
lumped into a single cat-
egory, unless a write-in
hopeful has alerted
state election offi -
cials or has fi lled out
needed
paperwork
ahead of time to ensure
their ballots are tabu-
lated separately.
In Massachusetts and 33
other states, write-in presidential candidate
must fi ll out paperwork before an election to
ensure their ballots are tallied. In a handful
of states, write-in voting for presidential can-
didates is simply not allowed. The remain-
ing states do not require presidential write-in
candidates to fi le special paperwork before
the election.
See ELECTION, Page 4A
Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian
Randy Roden exits the courtroom after his verdict is read Monday at Clatsop County Circuit Court in Astoria. Roden was found
guilty of murder by abuse, manslaughter, criminal mistreatment and assault but was acquitted of other murder charges that
c ould have carried the death penalty or life in prison.
Avoids the death penalty but
could spend decades in prison
her death, he was convicted on
lesser charges of fi rst-degree
manslaughter.
By KATIE FRANKOWICZ
For The Daily Astorian
A
Seaside man accused of tor-
turing and killing his girl-
friend’s 2-year-old daugh-
ter was found guilty of murder
by abuse, manslaughter, crimi-
nal mistreatment and assault on
Monday, but was acquitted of
even more serious charges that
could have resulted in the death
penalty or life in prison.
Randy Roden, 28, could still
spend the next few decades in
prison, however.
He faced more than a dozen
serious
charges,
including
charges of murder by abuse and
felony murder, for the death of
Evangelina Wing in Decem-
ber 2014. On Monday, a 12-per-
son jury found him guilty of
these last two charges, as well as
assault and criminal mistreatment
charges tied to his abuse of Evan-
gelina and her two brothers.
Roden was acquitted of
Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian
charges that alleged he sexually
abused Wing. The state had argued
that certain injuries to Wing were
the result of sexual abuse and that
Roden was motivated to kill the
child in order to cover up any evi-
dence of this abuse and to ensure
she didn’t tell anyone.
Though he was also not con-
victed on the four counts of
aggravated murder, which carried
the possibility of the death pen-
alty and included the accusation
that he had tortured Wing before
By CLAIRE WITHYCOMBE
Capital Bureau
These charges, coupled with
the murder by abuse and felony
murder charges, carry signifi cant
prison time, potentially up to 35
years — or at least that’s what the
state hopes.
“This man should never be
around another child ever again,”
said Deputy District Attorney
Ron Brown, who prosecuted the
case for the state.
He said he was pleased with
the verdict and plans to ask that
Roden serve all his time on the
various charges consecutively
— one after the other — instead
of overlapping the various sen-
tences and serving them at the
same time. He is already serving
time for violating parole on an
earlier coercion conviction.
SALEM — Wind, solar and ethanol proj-
ects were among the dozens of renewable
energy projects referred for investigation to
the state Department of Justice by auditors of
a discontinued state tax credit program .
The list, released on Friday, was com-
piled by Marsh Minick P C , a private fi rm
that conducted an audit of the Department
of Energy’s Business Energy Tax Credit pro-
gram under contract with the Secretary of
State’s Offi ce.
That audit was released in early
September.
Auditors didn’t fi nd “direct evidence” of
fraud, they wrote in their audit report, but
said they found “circumstantial evidence”
suggesting suspicious activity in a number
of projects.
According to the documents listing those
projects, there were several that exceeded
limits on eligible costs.
Oregon statutes limited eligible costs to
$20 million per renewable energy facility per
year.
See GUILTY, Page 7A
See SCRUTINY, Page 7A
Prison time
Randy Roden reacts as his verdict is read Monday at Clatsop
County Circuit Court in Astoria.
Dozens
of energy
projects
scrutinized
Brownson wants to help drive issues forward
Astoria candidate
plans to leverage
social media
By ERICK BENGEL
The Daily Astorian
In the November election, the race for
Astoria’s South Slope City Council posi-
tion won’t exactly be a nail-biter: Tom
Brownson, 63, a retired contractor, is the
sole candidate.
The Ward 2 shoo-in is seeking the
seat recently vacated by Drew Herzig,
who moved to Massachusetts before fi n-
ishing his one term in offi ce. Bruce Jones
and Cory Pederson are running for Ward
4 on the east side.
Brownson said he will not come to
the council with a specifi c vision for
Astoria’s future. Rather, “my desire is to
be part of a council that works,” he said.
His goal is “to help facilitate that, in
both listening and cooperating and driv-
ing the important issues forward and not
letting them get stagnant,” he said.
Issues like: housing and economic
development, the Astoria Library’s
future, raising awareness of the Cascadia
earthquake and others.
“I think that the council really has
to work hard to work well together and
move as effi ciently as possible toward
fi nding solutions,” he said, “because
I just think now is the time for that to
happen.”
Housing (again)
Brownson called the housing short-
age a “terrible thing locally.” The short-
age is partly driven by an increased
demand for units and limited options for
new residential development.
The candidate is aware that some res-
idents believe the “housing problem” is
not really a problem — that Astoria has
enough residents already — but said he
favors housing development.
“I think you have to have it,” he said.
“I think, if you’re going to depend upon
the goodwill of tourists in this town, then
you have to support it with service for
them, right? You need the restaurants,
you need the hotels, motels, to accom-
modate them. You need staff for all these
things.”
And, he said, service workers need
housing they can afford, a need that will
grow as the local economy grows.
See BROWNSON, Page 7A
Submitted Photo
Tom Brownson is running un-
opposed for the Ward 2 City
Council seat, a position recent-
ly vacated by Drew Herzig.