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THE ASTORIAN • SATuRdAy, FEbRuARy 26, 2022
Appeals court upholds convictions in murder of Newport man
Body left near highway
east of Astoria
By ERICK BENGEL
The Astorian
The Oregon Court of Appeals
has affirmed the convictions of a
couple who in September 2016
murdered a Newport man and left
his body near the highway east of
Astoria.
Adeena Marilyn Copell, now
45, and Christian John Wilkins,
now 42, were sentenced in Clatsop
County Circuit Court in 2019 for
beating to death Howard Vinge,
71.
They killed Vinge in his RV,
which they stole along with a lux-
ury sedan, and later dumped his
body down an embankment off of
U.S. Highway 30. They ditched
the RV on U.S. Highway 26.
The couple were arrested in
Arizona in October 2016. In
2019, they were sentenced to a
minimum of 25 years in prison for
murder, second-degree abuse of a
corpse and two counts of unautho-
rized use of a vehicle. Copell had
a jury trial, while Wilkins pleaded
guilty.
In Copell’s appeal, the state
Office of Public Defense Ser-
vices argued that her Miranda
rights were violated when she was
apprehended near Flagstaff. They
also argued there may have been
prosecutorial misconduct during
closing arguments, a finding that
could have led to a mistrial.
Scott McCracken, a Clatsop
County deputy district attorney,
prosecuted the case with Beau
Peterson, now a Circuit Court
judge. McCracken said the affir-
mation is “a big deal to us, because
it means we don’t have to retry it
right now.”
The state appeals court affirmed
the conviction without issuing an
opinion. This, McCracken said,
is “just the court saying, ‘Every-
thing’s fine. We’re not going to tell
you why, it’s just … everything’s
fine.’”
McCracken said Copell can
petition for review to the Oregon
Supreme Court. But the state’s
highest court is unlikely to take up
the case, he said.
Colin Murphey/The Astorian
Adeena Copell, right, reacts as the verdict is read during her murder trial in 2019.
Shooting: ‘This case
could have gone on
for another 10 years’
Continued from Page A1
Lydia Ely/The Astorian
A re-created canopy hangs over the entrance to the Merwyn Apartments. The old hotel building had long been a blight on
Duane Street.
Merwyn: A struggle to find building managers
Continued from Page A1
served by most communi-
ties. It’s hard to finance hous-
ing like this, so to be able to
get it is a real benefit for the
community.”
Most of the units target
people earning between 30%
and 60% of the county’s
median income —$15,330 to
$30,660 annually based on
2021 data.
The higher priced units
are designed to draw down-
town workers, while the low-
er-priced units are aimed at
people who are homeless or
in unstable housing.
Leah Cooper, the director
of operations with Innovative
Housing, said the makeup of
tenants at the Merwyn is cur-
rently weighted toward peo-
ple earning 30% of median
income because of the order
on the waitlist.
“When there is opportu-
nities for affordable hous-
ing, a lot of service provid-
ers will help get their clients
into housing right off the
bat,” Cooper said. “So you
might have a population that
is more vulnerable, harder to
house.
“That first year can often
be about helping people fol-
low the leasing rules, live
among strangers and find
some community. We want
to provide housing for every-
one, but sometimes people
are not a good fit.”
The nonprofit provides a
resident services coordina-
tor at other facilities it man-
ages to help address those
expected challenges, but that
position does not exist at the
Merwyn.
Cooper said the non-
profit tries to work with res-
idents to prevent eviction,
and partners with Clatsop
Community Action to pro-
vide services and resources
to struggling tenants.
Some of the behavioral
issues caused people to move
out of the building.
Cooper is hopeful that
some of the worrisome
behavior has eased, and that
turnover will become less
frequent. However, Cooper
said turnover is not uncom-
mon for the first year, and
that it is similar to what the
nonprofit has seen with other
properties.
“So, it was not surprising
to us,” Cooper said. “There
was a lot of people that were
very low income moving
into (the building). And I
think it speaks more to the
lack of other options in the
community. Astoria has a lot
of folks that are living very
marginally, either outside or
very unstably housed.”
Cooper said that some
people who moved in may
not have had stable hous-
ing for a while. Sometimes,
that comes with challenges
that can be difficult for other
tenants and the building, she
said.
The nonprofit has also
struggled to find building
managers.
Since there are not a lot
of other affordable housing
developments on the North
Coast, Cooper said it is diffi-
cult to find local people who
have experience doing the
work. She said people they
have hired have had to move
from out of the area, and that
it has been a challenge to find
the right fit.
While the income ranges
at the Merwyn have paral-
lels to the workforce hous-
ing being proposed for Her-
itage Square, there are key
differences.
The workforce hous-
ing units at Heritage Square
would target people at 60% to
80% of area median income
— $30,660 to $40,880 annu-
ally based on 2021 data.
The supportive hous-
ing units at Heritage Square
in partnership with Clat-
sop Behavioral Healthcare
would target people at 30%
of area median income.
Unlike at the Merwyn, the
supportive housing would
include access to staff and
services from the mental
health agency.
An increase in
calls to police
Astoria police examined
calls for service at the Mer-
wyn, and within a 150 foot
radius, and found that calls
have doubled since the apart-
ments opened to tenants.
Since last March, police
said, there were 217 calls to
the area, compared to 100
calls the previous year.
Police Chief Geoff Spald-
ing said that while many of
the calls are to the Merwyn,
the overall increase is not
necessarily tied solely to the
building.
Megan Leatherman, the
city’s community develop-
ment director, said the city
has not received any formal
complaints about the Mer-
wyn. The Astoria Downtown
Historic District Association
has not received any, either.
Savannah Thomas, who
moved into the Merwyn with
her 4-year old daughter soon
after it opened, said she is
pleased with the way issues
have been addressed.
She also drew a distinc-
tion between behavior in
the neighborhood, particu-
larly the Garden of Surging
Waves, and the Merwyn. She
thinks behavioral issues are
often unfairly attributed to
the Merwyn.
Thomas, who grew up in
Warrenton, helps run Pat’s
Pantry downtown with her
father, Dennis. She said she
would not be living at the
Merwyn with her daughter if
she did not feel safe. She said
she enjoys being able to walk
to work and come home to a
nice apartment.
One of the things Thomas
said she values most is see-
ing people living in a beau-
tifully restored building who
otherwise would not have the
opportunity.
“To be able to live in a
place like that, and feel like
you’re in a place you deserve
to be — and to be able to
afford it — that is freaking
cool in and of itself,” she
said. “I think that’s really
big.”
An AR-15 was found in
his suitcase. He also had a
bizarre cache that included
a hard hat, hair dye, new
clothes, a reflective vest
and a breathing mask, The
Astorian reported. What
Savinskiy intended to do
with all of those items
remains a mystery, Brown
said.
Once in jail, Savinskiy
tried to put out a contract to
kill Symonds and Savins-
kiy’s ex-wife, Olga — two
witnesses against him —
and to permanently disable
then-deputy district attor-
ney Brown with a base-
ball bat. Savinskiy’s cell-
mate, James Russell, who
informed police of the plot,
wore a wire and recorded
Savinskiy admitting to it.
Symonds spoke at
Thursday’s
sentencing,
asking the court to consider
how Savinskiy’s actions —
both the shootout and the
plan to have him murdered
— affected him.
“They were detrimen-
tal to my career with the
Astoria Police Depart-
ment,” Symonds said, “and
I have suffered a great deal
of loss of sleep and phys-
ical illnesses as a result of
the stress that I was placed
under for the extended
period of time, post the
incident and especially post
the threats and the attempt
to have a contract on my
life and my family’s life.”
In 2013, Judge Philip
Nelson sentenced Savins-
kiy to more than 34 years
in prison. The Oregon
Supreme Court reversed
the sentence, ruling in light
of the Oregon v. Prieto-Ru-
bio decision that the evi-
dence collected by body
wire was only admissible
in the conspiracy charges,
not in the Lamplighter
charges.
The Circuit Court would
have needed to split the trial
in two: one for the Lamp-
lighter incident, the other
for Savinskiy’s attempt to
hire a hitman.
Kantor
commended
the Circuit Court and Sav-
inskiy’s
Portland-based
defense attorney, Alex
Hamalian, for coming to
an agreement and bringing
the case to an end 10 years
after it began.
“This case could have
gone on for another 10
years without an effort to
resolve it practically, sensi-
bly and thoughtfully,” Kan-
tor said.
Hailey Hoffman/The Astorian
Oregon will lift an indoor mask mandate
imposed to help prevent the spread of
the coronavirus.
Masks: Monday
will mark the two-
year anniversary of
the first COVID-19
case in Oregon
Continued from Page A1
Sturgell: Could get 20 years in prison if he violates probation
Continued from Page A1
If he violates probation,
Sturgell could serve 20 years
in prison.
“Given what the real-
ity in the future is, given
Mr. Sturgell’s health, I think
the sentence accommodates
pretty much every element
of justice we could bring
to it,” Judge Henry Kantor
said.
Sturgell was originally
sentenced in 2019 to more
than 13 years in prison for
counts involving first-degree
sodomy, first-degree unlaw-
ful sexual penetration, sec-
ond-degree sex abuse, brib-
ing a witness and witness
tampering.
An Astoria man who
joined Sturgell at the hotel
and also had sex with the
victim received probation,
as did the Hammond fish-
erman who approached the
victim’s father on Sturgell’s
behalf.
In September, a Mar-
ion County judge, Claudia
Burton, voided Sturgell’s
convictions.
Burton
found
that
Sturgell was poorly rep-
resented when his Salem-
based defense attorney,
Jason Thompson, did not
object to the state using
Sturgell’s security release
agreement as a trial exhibit.
This document listed
sex abuse charges that had
already been dismissed and
contained other insinuating
details that, Burton ruled,
could have biased some
jurors, whose verdicts on
the sex abuse charges were
nonunanimous.
In 2020, the U.S. Supreme
Court ruled that nonunan-
imous verdicts unconstitu-
tionally violate the Sixth
Amendment guarantee of
a right to trial by impar-
tial jury. The court ruled in
2021 that its decision did not
apply retroactively, but gave
states the ability to con-
sider whether older verdicts
should be reviewed.
The Oregon Legislature
is weighing a bill to give
some inmates convicted by
nonunanimous juries the
chance for new trials. Since
Sturgell’s original convic-
tions were vacated last year,
he would not have been
eligible.
feedback from school districts. Orig-
inally, state officials said the K-12
indoor mask rule would lift on March
31.
The mask mandate will remain in
health care settings.
Monday will mark the two-year
anniversary of the first COVID-19 case
in Oregon. State health officials have
noted six waves of infection in Oregon
over the 24 months.
Oregon had reported 691,337 virus
cases and 6,578 deaths since the begin-
ning of the pandemic as of Thursday.
The Oregon Health Authority
reported 13 new virus cases for Clat-
sop County on Thursday. Since the pan-
demic began, the county had recorded
4,503 virus cases as of Thursday.