A6
THE ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, MAY 4, 2021
Wirkkala: ‘I’m still trying to take it all in’
Continued from Page A1
The water shut off sud-
denly, leaving Wirkkala to
take stock of his life. He was a
convicted murderer shackled
to a prison shower, covered
with soap, shaking uncontrol-
lably, experiencing the sen-
sations of freezing and burn-
ing at the same time, unsure
if anyone was coming to get
him.
“I really didn’t want to be
alive at that moment,” Wirk-
kala recalled .
Wirkkala’s
experience
with the criminal justice sys-
tem was certainly a rare one.
He was tried twice for mur-
der on essentially the same
facts, but with two diff erent
outcomes: Guilty in 2014 for
the death of his houseguest,
David Andrew Ryder, 31,
and not guilty in April after a
retrial.
Wirkkala never disputed
that on Feb. 4, 2013, he shot
Ryder at close range with a
pump-action shotgun after a
long day of drinking together.
But he was adamant he’d
killed Ryder in self-defense
after Ryder had sexually
assaulted him.
When Wirkkala’s attor-
ney argued that the origi-
nal jury heard portions of a
police interview after Wirk-
kala had invoked his right to
an attorney, the Oregon Court
of Appeals ordered a retrial in
early 2018.
Most defendants who win
an appeal opt for a plea deal or
are again found guilty. But in
this case, Wirkkala’s resolve
paid off and he’s now back
living on the c oast, where the
Ilwaco High School graduate
grew up, eight years after his
odyssey through the justice
system began.
“I’m still trying to take it
all in,” he said over tea at the
Astoria Brewing Co . “I’m
very easily overwhelmed
these days.”
Wirkkala, now 40, has had
a few beers since his acquit-
tal, but drinking for him can’t
be like it was before, espe-
cially if he returns to bar-
tending as a side gig. He had
drunk throughout the day of
the shooting, a Super Bowl
Sunday, starting with two
glasses of white wine before
the game. A forensic expert
determined his blood alcohol
level was between 0.18 and
0.38 when he killed Ryder.
“Basically, I was an alco-
holic before,” Wirkkala said.
“I don’t want to go back to
that partying lifestyle. It takes
over a person’s life. I know it
caused me to set aside things
in life I’d wanted to do.”
‘All the little things’
Freedom can be over-
whelming, Wirkkala has
learned. In the weeks since his
release, he’s had to sweat out
a driving test, fi nd a replace-
ment for his fl ip phone and an
institution that will bank with
a man with several expired
IDs.
“It’s all the little things,” he
said. “A lot of people probably
don’t think about all the hoops
you have to jump through to
re enter society.”
Visiting a marijuana dis-
pensary to purchase CBD
was a bit surreal. But there’s
plenty that’s stayed the same,
like the calamari he likes to
order at the Astoria Brewing
Company. His cat, “Boots,” is
still around at age 11.
Wirkkala is concerned
with a short list of priorities,
like fi xing up a truck given
to him by a cousin and com-
pleting the formal process of
getting his record expunged.
He’s looking for a place to
live so he can move out of his
parents’ house, where all his
possessions have sat boxed up
since the case began.
Along with sobriety,
he hopes to continue with
another good habit he prac-
ticed in lockup: writing.
Writing was a form of ther-
apy for Wirkkala. The book
he’s writing about his expe-
rience helped keep him sane
while in prison in Ontario,
Hailey Hoff man/The Astorian
Luke Wirkkala wears a ‘Free Luke’ bracelet with a Bible verse
from Matthew 17:20.
though he paused that project
after his transfer back to the
Deschutes County jail for his
retrial. He feared prosecutors
might try to seize his notes as
evidence.
The tentative title: “And
then came the Storm.”
Justice is a theme in Wirk-
kala’s writings, and came at
a high cost for him. Finan-
cially, he and his support-
ers paid more than a quarter
million dollars in legal bills
and other costs. Reputation-
ally, his name will always be
linked to the killing in Bend.
The experience also cost him
his marriage.
But perhaps most damag-
ing of all was his loss of free-
dom. He spent eight years in
custody.
As brutal as prison is, with
its gangs and violence, it’s
still preferable to life in the
Deschutes County jail, he
said. Paradoxically, there was
a certain freedom to prison, he
said. Prisoners are allowed to
spend up to eight hours a day
visiting in-person with their
loved ones. They’re allowed
to hold a job that earns them a
small amount of income each
month. At “Snake,” there was
an outdoor track and a weight
room to keep fi t.
days, but not for a lengthy
stay. Wirkkala said he felt
his body start to deteriorate
despite a commitment to
keeping fi t in his cell.
In his second stint in the
jail, three inmates died of
suicide. Wirkkala thought
about killing himself every
day, and each jail suicide
added to his despair.
“When you’re locked in
a concrete box 24/7, it’s not
conducive to good mental
health,” he said.
After his 2014 conviction,
Wirkkala held out hope that
if he successfully appealed,
newly elected Deschutes
County District Attorney
John Hummel, a progressive
and onetime defense attor-
ney, would drop the charges.
“Well,
unfortunately,
that’s not what happened,”
Wirkkala said. “He talks a
good game, but when the
rubber meets the road, I’ve
found there’s not much
there.”
Getting the
truth heard
In his time out of custody ,
Wirkkala has also spoken to
a number of reporters, some-
thing he wishes he would
have done earlier.
‘IT WAS PRETTY DEVASTATING
TO LOSE MY WIFE WHILE I WAS
INSIDE. SHE HELPED ME SURVIVE
THIS. SHE HUNG IN THERE FOR
FIVE YEARS. LOSING HER WAS
PRETTY HEARTBREAKING. THAT
JUST MADE IT A LOT LONELIER
FOR ME. I’M STILL TRYING TO
FIGURE IT OUT MYSELF.’
Luke Wirkkala
The jail, by contrast, is
locked down like a supermax
prison, Wirkkala said. From
2018 to 2021, while await-
ing his second trial, Wirk-
kala spent 18 hours each day
in a cell . Surrounded by steel
and concrete, he rarely saw
the sun.
Communicating
with
loved ones can be costly,
he said. The telecommu-
nications vendor for the
Deschutes County Sheriff ’s
Offi ce, Telmate, charges 25
cents to 50 cents per minute
for calls. And as Wirkkala
notes, it’s often the inmate’s
family who pays, not the
inmate.
Jail inmates are fed a
carb-heavy diet of processed
food, which might be fi ne
for people locked up for 30
MORE
THAN
YOU
IMAGINED
After he lawyered up
in 2013, he urged his two
attorneys to release an offi -
cial statement, to “get the
truth out there,” so the news
media wouldn’t just run with
the prosecution’s account,
he said. His lawyers advised
against it, and when he got to
trial in 2014, the jury was told
repeatedly by prosecutors that
he was a “storyteller” who
had a year and a half to think
up his explanation for killing
Ryder.
“Look, I get it, lawyers are
cautious by nature ... but if
they had just put something
out there, something basic,
that whole argument could
not have been made,” Wirk-
kala said. “A top-tier attorney
should not be afraid to talk to
the press. They should view
3D Theater
Lightship Tour
Gift Store
the press as what it is: a tool
that should be used. If you’re
not using it, you’re not provid-
ing your client with the best
possible defense.”
To Wirkkala, lawyering
factored heavily into the out-
come of both trials. He has an
active bar complaint alleging
misconduct against the pros-
ecutors from his fi rst trial,
along with former Deschutes
County District Attorney
Patrick Flaherty. Wirkkala
also has no love for Walter
Todd, the lead lawyer in his
fi rst trial, whom he suspects
thought he was guilty of at
least manslaughter.
“He is largely responsible
for me going to prison,” Wirk-
kala said.
Todd didn’t return numer-
ous requests for comment.
Wirkkala wishes Todd had
taken jury selection more seri-
ously. In the fi rst trial, the pro-
cess lasted half a day. In the
second, it stretched a day and
a half, with jurors polled about
issues close to the case, like
fi rearm use in home defense
and alcohol consumption.
“We just got so much more
information about them, and
I think we got a much better
jury,” Wirkkala said.
For his part, Hummel said
he reviewed Wirkkala’s case
after taking offi ce and deter-
mined a murder charge was
appropriate.
He noted that 14 jurors
in Deschutes County voted
to convict Wirkkala over his
two trials, while 10 supported
acquittal.
“People sometimes misun-
derstand what an acquittal is,”
Hummel said. “It’s an exam-
ple of the system working.”
Wirkkala had a few dates
lined up in the coming weeks,
but his ex-wife seemed to
weigh heavy on his mind.
Since his release, they’d tex-
ted but hadn’t spoken to each
other. He’d heard she’s dating
someone else.
Wirkkala met Rachel Ras-
mussen in Astoria in 2011. He
says he knew in short order it
was a special relationship. In
2012, the couple moved from
the cloud-shrouded coast to
Bend and the promise of sun-
shine and opportunity.
Shortly after his conviction
in 2014, Rasmussen visited
him in jail, and he told her, “I
was going to ask you to marry
me,” meaning, had he been
acquitted, as he’d expected,
he would have proposed to
her then and there.
She told him “of course”
she would marry him.
She moved to be near the
prison in Ontario and visited
him four days a week, the
maximum allowed. But some-
time in 2018, she stopped tak-
ing his calls. He thinks she
fi nally reached her “break-
ing point.” They divorced that
year.
Rasmussen asked to not
take part in this story.
As he recounted his experi-
ences in the brewpub he wore
a “Free Luke” bracelet and his
wedding ring, accessories he
wasn’t permitted as an inmate
of the Deschutes County jail.
“It was pretty devastating
to lose my wife while I was
inside. She helped me survive
this. She hung in there for
fi ve years,” he said. “Losing
her was pretty heartbreaking.
That just made it a lot lonelier
for me. I’m still trying to fi g-
ure it out myself.”
As his second trial
approached, Wirkkala wasn’t
sure if Rasmussen would tes-
tify again. But in March, she
traveled to Bend and was
called as a witness for the
defense. She told jurors she
was grateful to her ex-husband
for defending their household
that fateful night, which Wirk-
kala thinks was crucial for the
jury to hear.
Following her testimony,
she passed him at the defense
table and they locked eyes for
the fi rst time in years.
His head tracked her
movement the whole way she
retook her seat.
“I’m trying not to think
about her too much, ” he said.
County reports six
new virus cases
The Astorian
Clatsop County on Monday reported six new
coronavirus cases.
The cases include two females under 10 living
in the southern part of the county. The others live in
the northern part of the county and involve a man
in his 20s, a man and a woman in their 30s and a
woman in her 60s.
All six were recovering at home.
The county has recorded 952 cases since the
start of the pandemic. According to the county, 24
were hospitalized and eight have died.
Director: ‘We’ve
defi nitely seen more
emphasis on historic
preservation’
Continued from Page A1
The downtown associ-
ation’s fi rst two directors
were interns with Amer-
iCorps. Heath replaced
Alana Garner, the associ-
ation’s fi rst salaried direc-
tor. The association recently
took over management of
the Astoria Sunday Market
and hired Shelby Meyers
to oversee the weekly event
and other promotions.
Julie Kovatch, the pres-
ident of the downtown
association’s board, said
interviews for a new exec-
utive director will begin this
month, with hopes of hav-
ing one in place sometime
in June.
“Even just in the past year
since we’ve had Sarah Lu,
we’ve defi nitely seen more
emphasis on historic preser-
vation, and grant writing and
trying to support businesses
at a higher level,” Kovatch
said. “And so the person
we’re looking for isn’t just
an event planner and orga-
nizer for downtown events
and memberships. We’re
looking for grant-writing
skills and management and
trying to fi nd creative and
new ways of revitalizing and
maintaining a unique down-
town Astoria. So this is defi -
nitely a big position to fi ll.”
Heath will stay in Asto-
ria and work remotely coor-
dinating programs for the
economic development dis-
Krista Schram
Sarah Lu Heath is departing
as executive director of
the Astoria Downtown
Historic District Association
for a position with the
Columbia-Pacifi c Economic
Development District.
trict, which covers Clatsop,
Columbia, Tillamook and
western Washington coun-
ties. She said she is excited
to continue working on eco-
nomic development eff orts
that will benefi t the region,
such as master planning at
the Port of Astoria and help-
ing develop more aff ordable
housing.
“Col-Pac is pleased to
welcome Sarah Lu to our
team,” Ayreann Colombo,
the executive director of the
district, said in a statement.
“Her background, skills and
professional network in our
region will be great assets as
we look to grow our orga-
nization and strengthen the
resources and services we
bring to the region and our
economic
development
partners.”
ith an
W
h
t
Pa
Forge Your Own
n
a
o
L
e
Adventur
Now more than ever, you’re ready for a vacation.
Kick off your journey with a low-rate loan on the RV, boat,
motorcycle, ATV, or wave runner you've always wanted.
4.74
%
APR*
We practice Rate Equality, so every qualified member gets
the same low rate. We’ll even refinance loans from other
lenders so you can save big.
Apply Online or in a Branch Today!
For more information, text: Adventure to 360-351-4111
*Annual Percentage Rate effective 3/1/2021 and subject to change. Ten year old recreational
vehicle or newer. 84 month term at this rate. Extended term available at a higher rate.
OPEN DAILY 9:30 TO 5:00 • 1792 Marine Drive, Astoria
503.325.2323 • www.crmm.org
Full-service coffee shop inside and
drive-up order & delivery outside at
our Warrenton branch!
85 W Marine Dr Astoria
2315 N Roosevelt Dr Seaside
1771 SE Ensign Ln Warrenton
www.tlcfcu.org • 503.842.7523
FibreFamily
ILikeTLC