A2
THE ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2021
IN BRIEF
County unemployment rate
declined in September
Clatsop County’s unemployment rate was 5.5% in
September.
The seasonally adjusted rate was down from 5.8%
in August and down from 8.3% from September 2020.
The state’s unemployment rate was 4.7% in Sep-
tember, the Oregon Employment Department reported,
compared to 4.8% nationwide.
State discloses virus cases for county
The Oregon Health Authority reported three new
coronavirus cases in Clatsop County on Tuesday and
eight new cases over the weekend.
Since the pandemic began, the county had recorded
2,448 virus cases and 27 deaths as of Tuesday.
— The Astorian
Storm knocked out power on peninsula
LONG BEACH, Wash. — A strong storm knocked
out power and caused property damage on the Long
Beach Peninsula.
According to the Pacifi c County Public Utility Dis-
trict, during the height of the storm, sections of Chi-
nook, Seaview, Surfside, Ocean Park, the northern end
of the peninsula and residents in the Willapa Valley
area were in the dark.
Many residents in Ocean Park were left in the dark
overnight and into Monday because of severe wind dam-
age before power was restored. Power poles at one sub-
station were found snapped in half by the strong winds.
Pacifi c County crosses 2,000 virus cases
LONG BEACH, Wash. — It took 14 months from
when the pandemic started for Pacifi c County to reach
1,000 cases of COVID-19. It took less than six months
for the county to add 1,000 more.
The county surpassed 2,000 confi rmed virus cases
on Oct. 21, according to county health director Katie
Lindstrom. The county crossed 1,000 coronavirus
cases last spring, on May 11.
The county had recorded 32 virus deaths as of Monday.
— Chinook Observer
DEATHS
Oct. 25, 2021
In MARSHALL,
Brief
Kolin
Mark, 70, of Astoria, died
in Astoria. Caldwell’s
Deaths
Luce-Layton Mortuary of
Astoria is in charge of the
arrangements.
Oct. 24, 2021
BLACK, Diane Mabel,
75, of Gearhart, died
in Portland. Caldwell’s
Funeral & Cremation
Arrangement Center of
Seaside is in charge of the
arrangements.
Oct. 23, 2021
ERTZ, Timo, 49, of
Cannon Beach, died in Can-
non Beach. Hughes-Ran-
som Mortuary is in charge
of the arrangements.
REDFIELD, Leanna
Layne, 68, of Seaside,
died in Seaside. Cald-
well’s Funeral & Crema-
tion Arrangement Center
of Seaside is in charge of
the arrangements.
Oct. 22, 2021
PETERSEN,
Law-
rence “Larry,” 79, of
Astoria, died in Portland.
Hughes-Ransom Mor-
tuary is in charge of the
arrangements.
Oct. 21, 2021
BRACE,
Michael
Edward, 80, of Clats-
kanie, died at Community
Home Health & Hospice
in Longview, Washing-
ton. Columbia Funeral
Service is in charge of the
arrangements.
ON THE RECORD
Attempting to elude arrested on Tuesday on
On
the Record
•
Vincent
David U.S. Highway 26 near
Davidson-Gilbert,
32,
of Astoria, was arrested
on Wednesday at S.E.
Ensign Lane and S.E.
19th Street in Warrenton
for two counts of attempt-
ing to elude police (one
by vehicle, the other by
foot), reckless driving and
escape in the third degree.
Theft
• Chelsea M. Brown,
of Portland, was arrested
on Oct. 19 at Walmart in
Warrenton for theft in the
second degree.
DUII
• Roxanna Jean Ange-
les, 59, of Portland, was
milepost 25.5 for driv-
ing under the infl uence
of intoxicants, reckless
driving, driving while her
license was suspended
or revoked and failure to
appear.
• Dylan James Addis,
18, of Astoria, was
arrested on Saturday at
Alternate U.S. Highway
101 in Warrenton for
DUII.
• Cynthia Lynn Mow-
ery, 40, of Pasco, Wash-
ington, was arrested on
Saturday on U.S. High-
way 101 near milepost 25
for DUII.
PUBLIC MEETINGS
THURSDAY
Sunset Empire Transportation District Board, 9 a.m.,
(electronic meeting).
Columbia River Estuary Study Taskforce, noon, (elec-
tronic meeting).
Clatsop County Recreational Lands Planning Advisory
Committee, 1 p.m., (electronic meeting).
Cannon Beach Planning Commission, 6 p.m., (electronic
meeting).
PUBLIC MEETINGS
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Murderer: Governor does not grant clemency without
considering input from the victim through the DA
Continued from Page A1
that wrote upon his behalf,
I didn’t fi nd anything in
there,” Nimz said. “I found
nothing apologizing for the
trauma that this has caused
and the lifelong devastation
that it’s caused my family.”
Manhunt
Steve Barnett, then a Sea-
side Police Department ser-
geant, led the investigation
into the murders.
Now retired, Barnett said
at the time McAllister was “a
violent kind of gang-bang-
ing type of kid who was not
afraid of anything.”
Barnett described Price,
who worked at the local
video store, as a follower.
He had been a star athlete
at Brookings High School,
attended the University of
Oregon for a year before
dropping out and coming to
the North Coast.
His life was on a down-
hill spiral. Barnett described
him as “an estranged college
kid that sat around and drank
Robitussin to get high.”
What made their crime
particularly horrifi c was the
“hunting” McAllister and
Price did during the weeks
before the night of the mur-
der, Barnett said. McAllister
and Price had cruised area
beaches in McAllister’s car.
“They were searching for
someone to kill,” Barnett
said.
The night of the mur-
der, McAllister and Price,
after making conversation
with girls at a bonfi re on the
beach, returned to the Prom
and headed downtown. It
was near closing time for
local bars.
“Frank and Brooke had
just left one of the local tav-
erns,” Barnett said. “They
(McAllister and Price)
started a conversation with
them, asking if they wanted
to go smoke a bowl of
weed. They agreed, and they
walked from the bar down to
the Prom.”
McAllister recommended
that they go out on the beach
over the dunes, Barnett said.
“There’s a little swing set
there, and that’s where the
deed took place. Clearly
through the whole ordeal,
Jesse McAllister was the
mastermind.”
Both victims suff ered
fatal gunshots to the head —
shots fi red by McAllister.
The killers “stopped
at Herb’s Quick Mart and
bought a couple of ciga-
rette lighters,” Barnett said.
“Jesse tells the clerk —
who’s a friend of his — ‘I
just shot two people on the
beach.’”
In the days to come,
police combed through evi-
dence, interviewed potential
witnesses, issued fl yers and
traced leads.
It wasn’t until Seaside
police received a tip that
McAllister and Price were
on their way to California or
Mexico that they were able
to get murder warrants for
their arrest.
The manhunt continued
for almost a year, coming
to the attention of “Amer-
ica’s Most Wanted,” a TV
show dedicated to fi nding
fugitives. Hundreds of tips
poured in and law enforce-
ment agencies fi elded calls
from around the country.
The “thrill kill” aspect
intrigued local and national
media — it was reported
that McAllister and Price
had rented “In Cold Blood”
repeatedly before the mur-
ders. The movie , based on
Truman Capote’s best-sell-
ing book, tells the story of
two young men who murder
a Kansas family with a shot-
gun in 1959.
In July 1998, McAllis-
ter was apprehended as he
attempted to cross the border
from Mexico into Browns-
ville, Texas.
Price was arrested two
days later in Mexico City,
where the men had been
sharing an apartment.
Plea deal
Both McAllister and
Price were charged with two
counts of aggravated murder.
McAllister was also charged
with being an ex-felon in
possession of a fi rearm.
Seaside Signal
The view inside the Clatsop County Courthouse as Jesse
McAllister was led into court in February 1999.
In return for the guilty
plea, after conversations
with relatives, then-Clat-
sop County District Attor-
ney Josh Marquis agreed
not to seek the death penalty
and not to prosecute any of
McAllister’s family mem-
bers who may have sent
him money or talked to him
during his yearlong fl ight to
avoid prosecution.
In a February 1999 hear-
ing, McAllister pleaded
guilty to the two murder
counts.
“In the early morning
hours of July 14, 1997, I was
walking on the beach near
the Promenade in Seaside,”
McAllister told the court.
“There I met Ms. Goza and
Mr. Nimz. Together we
walked away from the sand
dunes. I intentionally shot
Mr. Nimz in the head while
he was standing. I then shot
Ms. Goza in the head while
she lay in the sand.”
Price was sentenced to
prison for two consecutive
life terms for his role in the
killings. He is lodged at the
Snake River Correctional
Institution and is eligible to
seek parole after 30 years in
prison.
McAllister is serving two
consecutive life terms at the
Oregon State Penitentiary.
Clemency request
“Jesse was an angry, inse-
cure 19-year-old who lashed
at others — culminating in
him taking the lives of two
people,” Eickelberg, McAl-
lister’s lawyer, wrote in a
September letter accompa-
nying the petition. “At the
time, even though he knew
that what he had done was
wrong, it took Jesse some
time to truly come to terms
with the fact that he had
taken two lives and how this
impacted so many people in
the Seaside community.
“Jesse feels constant
remorse for the pain he
senselessly infl icted on the
victims’ families and his own
family, and strives each day
to be a better person than he
was the day before. Today,
he is a caring, friendly man
that adults in custody and
staff members enjoy being
around.”
Even if the clemency for
the life sentences is granted,
Eickelberg said, McAllister
would still need to wait two
more years before receiv-
ing a rehabilitation hear-
ing. Pending the results of
that hearing, McAllister
could then request a parole
hearing.
Clatsop County District
Attorney Ron Brown said he
was surprised by the request.
He said he and Marquis
are working on a response to
the petition.
“We’re putting together
a big-time opposition to it,
because we don’t want to see
the guy out,” Brown said.
“I’ve been here 18 years,
but this case predated me .
And it was one handled per-
sonally by Josh Marquis. I
wasn’t here then, but when
you work in a county, you
hear about some of the big-
ger murders, and particularly
unsolved and solved mur-
ders. So the murder on the
Seaside beaches was always
a case that everybody knew
about, because it was such a
ruthless thing.”
Marquis said he was
“horrifi ed” when he learned
of McAllister’s clemency
request.
When Marquis made the
plea deal, he said he had
many conversations with
the Nimz and Goza family.
“I told them what I believed
to be true, that that meant
that we would never, ever
hear from Jesse McAllis-
ter again,” he said. “There
would be no parole hearing.
There would be no appeals
court.”
Marquis said the mur-
ders stand out in his 25 years
as district attorney, “both in
terms of the utter innocence
of the victims and the cruelty
and brutality of it.
“And I support the death
penalty when it’s appro-
priate, and I don’t spend
sleepless nights thinking he
couldn’t get executed. But
I certainly would be hav-
ing sleepless nights if I
thought he was going to get
out — not for me, for the
community.”
The families of the two
victims will also weigh in.
“It didn’t take away my
dreams and ambitions from
coming to fruition,” Tashae
Nimz said. “I still worked
really hard and got into col-
lege and I have a really good
career, but it defi nitely makes
things a lot more diffi cult. It
did devastate our family and
tear my family completely
apart. My older brother has
never fully recovered from
the incident. He suff ers
greatly from the trauma that
he endured because of this.
He was 17 at the time. He was
just absolutely devastated.”
The process could take
about six months before a
decision is made, although
some cases may be longer,
the governor’s press secre-
tary, Liz Merah, said in an
email.
“Gov. Brown believes
that granting clemency is an
extraordinary act that is gen-
erally reserved for individu-
als who have made incred-
ible changes and who are
dedicated to making their
communities better, which is
why many clemency appli-
cations are denied,” she
said. “The governor evalu-
ates clemency applications
on a case-by-case basis and
considers a variety of fac-
tors about the applicant’s his-
tory and case when making
those decisions. Information
is provided from a variety
of sources during the review
process, including from law
enforcement, prison offi cials,
and the district attorney’s
offi ce, which includes input
from victims.
“The governor under-
stands that families may
have concerns when some-
one is being considered for
clemency, which is why she
takes the review process very
seriously,” Merah said. “Vic-
tims always have an opportu-
nity to be heard through trau-
ma-informed outreach by
the district attorney’s offi ce.
The governor does not grant
clemency without consid-
ering input from the victim
through the DA.”
Erick Bengel contributed
to this report.
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