SATURDAY, DECEMBER 4, 2021
JOSHUA
Continued from A1
Ash said the jail staff’s
top priorities are always
to ensure that inmates and
employees are safe.
Monitoring inmates who
have mental disorders, and
who can at times be violent, is
a major challenge.
“It’s very taxing on the
deputies,” Ash said. “There are
safety concerns, for the adults
in custody and the deputies. If
an adult in custody needs to
be in the state hospital, they
shouldn’t be in jail. But it does
happen, and it does become
frustrating.”
In a Nov. 11 letter to Judge
Shirtcliff signed by Melissa,
her husband, Darren, and
Joshua’s sister, Hannah, Me-
lissa wrote: “We are thankful
for staff at the jail for taking
care of him. However Jail is
not a place for an 18 yr old
with an onset of mental ill-
ness! He needs so much more.”
In the letter, Melissa also
expressed her frustration
about the lack of an alterna-
tive other than the jail or the
state hospital, which has cam-
puses in Salem and Junction
City — for instance, a secure
facility in Eastern Oregon
staffed by psychologists or
others trained to treat people
with mental illness.
Ash said he shares Me-
lissa’s frustration, because
there is no such facility in
the area where people with
mental disorders, who are
also charged with crimes, as
Joshua is, can be confined
until there is space available
in the state hospital system.
Although inmates in
isolation cells generally aren’t
allowed to have visitors, Ash
said he will make exceptions
if, for instance, the inmate
agrees to talk with a counselor
or a member of the clergy.
Melissa said Joshua has
met with a member of the
clergy a few times in the jail.
The pastor told her that
Joshua was very confused and
didn’t understand his legal
situation, including a plea
agreement offer that could
have resulted in him being
released from jail.
Baker County District
Attorney Greg Baxter said
he has talked with Melissa
about Joshua.
Baxter said he has also
discussed the situation with
Ash.
“I agree with the sheriff
that (Joshua) has serious
mental health issues and
requires a professional diag-
nosis,” Baxter said.
‘He said a really odd thing’
The Fulfers moved from
Seattle from Baker City seven
years ago.
WOLVES
Continued from A1
In April, the USFWS
submitted its examination re-
ports with findings consistent
with poisoning as the cause
of death for all six wolves,
the skunk and two magpies.
Lab results also indicated the
suspected evidence confirmed
a poisonous substance.
It is unlikely that the two
magpies or the skunk died
from consuming flesh from
the poisoned wolves, ac-
cording to OSP’s Stephanie
Bigman, who is captain of
During that visit, Joshua
“demonstrated signs of men-
tal illness,” Johnny wrote. “I
believe he was having seri-
ous Satanic delusions and
spoke to himself or another
imaginary person. I am
extremely concerned about
Joshua, and I would really
like to see him get the help
he needs.”
Five days later, Shirtcliff
signed the order to send
Joshua to the state hospital
for treatment.
Melissa said Joshua had a
normal childhood. He was a
junior at Baker High School
when the pandemic started
in March 2020 and classes
switched from in-person to
online.
She said Joshua, who
turned 17 in May 2020, didn’t
adjust well to that change.
He eventually transferred to
Eagle Cap Innovative High
School, an alternative to BHS
that’s also operated by the
Baker School District.
Melissa said the first indi-
cation that something wasn’t
right with Joshua happened
during the same family photo
appointment, before Christ-
mas 2020, that yielded the
photo she scrolled to on her
phone.
“He said a really odd
thing,” Melissa recalls.
Joshua talked about people
who were going to give him
“red jumpsuits in Wyoming,”
Melissa said. He also spoke
of moving to that state to
become a rap star.
He also started laughing to
himself.
In March of 2021, when
Joshua was 17, he was ar-
rested after fighting with his
parents at their home. He was
sent to a juvenile detention
facility in The Dalles but then
returned to Baker City. He
turned 18 on May 15.
After graduating from high
school in June, Joshua moved
to Utah where he lived with
Melissa’s parents and got a job
at Kentucky Fried Chicken.
He didn’t show up for his
first day of work.
Not long after, Melissa got
a phone call from a woman
at a gas station in Laramie,
Wyoming.
Joshua was there, the
woman told Melissa. He was
crying and confused, not
sure how he had ended up in
Wyoming, even though he had
driven there, Melissa said.
Joshua returned to Baker
City.
Melissa said she called a
physician assistant who had
treated Joshua. She believed
her son needed a referral for a
mental health evaluation.
But Melissa said she
couldn’t force Joshua, who at
age 18 was legally an adult, to
undergo an evaluation.
Joshua told her he heard
voices — “20 demons in his
brain,” she said.
She said the physician as-
sistant prescribed two drugs
for bipolar disorder, which
Joshua took “sporadically.”
On July 7, 2021, he was ar-
rested for stealing a 20-pack of
Coors beer from the Maverik
convenience store in Baker
City. Joshua was also cited
for interfering with a peace
officer, for allegedly refusing to
stop when a police officer told
him to do so.
Joshua was released from
jail the next day and ordered
to appear in Baker County
Circuit Court on July 22.
But on the day he was
supposed to be in court on the
theft charge, Joshua got into
a fight with another man. He
was also charged with assault-
ing a police officer — Melissa
said Joshua tried to run past
an officer during the incident.
Melissa said her son was
offered a plea deal in which
he would serve 30 days in jail
and sentenced to probation for
one year.
But she said he didn’t
understand the offer.
She said he seemed
convinced that he would be in
jail for five years based on a
maximum sentence on one of
the charges.
Melissa said she believes
Joshua’s failure to recognize
why he should take the plea
deal is evidence of his mental
disorder.
She also wonders whether,
if he had taken the medica-
tions prescribed for bipolar
disorder, that he might have
understood his legal situation.
Lt. Ben Wray, who super-
vises the jail, said that when
inmates are admitted to the
jail, employees ask them a
series of questions about their
health, including whether
they are taking any prescrip-
tion medications.
Inmates who have pre-
scriptions are offered those
medications as prescribed,
but Wray said he can’t force
inmates to take those medi-
cations.
Melissa said that when
she spoke to Joshua during a
visit to the jail before he was
placed in an isolation cell, he
told her “mom, it’s like I have
20 demons in my head talk-
ing to me.’ ”
She said she visited with
him on weekends early in
his incarceration and that
he seemed OK, despite being
confused about his legal
options. Then visiting was
restricted due to the surge in
COVID-19 cases.
Melissa raised the issue of
Joshua’s mental capacity in
a Sept. 26 email to Joshua’s
court-appointed attorney,
Kyra Rohner of Baker City.
Melissa wrote that “it
seems he is just not commu-
nicating and resigned to being
in there five years that is not
good for him in the long run.”
Melissa’s email also men-
tions another factor that has
frustrated her at times —
that Joshua, since turning 18
on May 15, is legally an adult,
which means Melissa often
can’t get information about
her son since she is no longer
his legal guardian.
In the email to Rohner,
Melissa asks about whether
she could gain power of at-
torney for her son due to his
mental issues.
On Sept. 28, Rohner filed
a motion seeking a court
order that Joshua’s fitness
to proceed in the case be
determined.
That same day Shirtcliff
signed an order that Joshua
be taken to the state hospital
in Salem for evaluation.
Melissa said Joshua
participated in that hearing
remotely, from the jail, and
when she saw him on the
monitor he was “flinching and
growling.”
“It was deeply disturbing,”
she said.
Shirtcliff amended the
Sept. 28 order on Oct. 21, stat-
ing that Joshua could be kept
at the state hospital for up to
30 days for the evaluation.
Melissa said the evalua-
tion didn’t happen because
Joshua was out of control
when he was taken to Salem.
He was returned to the
Baker County Jail.
A month later, Shirtcliff
signed the order committing
Joshua to the state hospital
not for an evaluation, but for
what’s known as “restoration”
— an attempt to get Joshua to
the point where he can assist
in defense against the charges
from the July 22 incident.
Joshua’s older brother,
Johnny Fulfer, also wrote
a letter to Shirtcliff, dated
Nov. 17.
Johnny Fulfer wrote that
Joshua stayed with him in
Spokane, Washington, for
more than a week in the late
spring of 2021, more than a
month before Joshua’s July
arrest.
government and media rela-
tions.
“I don’t believe they died
from eating the wolves. They
probably died from eating the
poison,” she said, adding that
she knows information about
the case she cannot share with
the public.
Two more collared wolves
were found dead in Union
County after the initial
incidents. In April, a deceased
adult male wolf from the Five
Points Pack was located west
of Elgin, and in July, a young
female wolf from the Clark
Creek Pack was located north-
east of La Grande.
In both cases, the cause
of death was not readily
apparent. Toxicology reports
confirmed the presence of
poison in each wolf.
Bigman said the wolf from
the Five Points Pack died
from a poison not similar
to the type which killed the
seven other wolves.
“It is different enough
that it could be a different
incident,” she said.
ODFW spokeswoman
Michelle Dennehy said the
poisonings are “terrible news,”
and the agency hopes some-
one from the public will come
forward with information to
help solve the case.
“The poisoning of an entire
pack is significant,” she said.
“We’ll have a clearer picture
on how that affects the over-
all (wolf) population after we
complete our winter surveys
this year.”
There were 173 known
wolves in Oregon at the end
of 2020.
ODFW killed eight wolves
from the Lookout Mountain
pack in eastern Baker County
over the summer and fall.
Wolves from that pack killed
at least seven head of cattle
and injured three others from
July through October.
Anyone with information
Obituaries
Continued from Page A2
Brenda and Ken are
members of Christian
Life Center in Bend.
Brenda is survived
by her husband, Ken
Kroener; her parents,
Robert and Gayle
Stanton; her sister, Sue
Kristine Stanton Stout;
her brother-in-law, Doug
Stout; and her faithful
dog, Freedom.
She was preceded in
death by her grandpar-
ents, Sam and Hazel
Stanton and Roy and
BAKER CITY HERALD — A3
LOCAL
Lillian Johnson.
For those who would
like to make a memo-
rial gift in memory
of Brenda, the family
suggests the Crystal
Peaks Youth Ranch (a
ranch for horses to be
loved on by children
who need to be loved
and to share their love)
through Tami’s Pine
Valley Funeral Home &
Cremation Services, P.O.
Box 543, Halfway, OR
97834.
Melissa Fulfer/Contributed Photo
Joshua Fulfer, left, several years ago with his brother, Johnny Fulfer.
“I’m willing to be transparent so changes can occur. We can do better.
I don’t want to see this happen to anybody else’s kid.”
— Melissa Fulfer
News of
Record
DEATHS
William L. ‘Bill’ Taylor: 79, of
Baker City, died Nov. 29, 2021, at Set-
tler’s Park. At his request, cremation
took place. A graveside service will be
scheduled in the spring of 2022. Ser-
vices are under the direction of Coles
Tribute Center, 1950 Place St. To light
a candle in Bill’s memory, go to www.
colestributecenter.com.
POLICE LOG
Baker County Sheriff’s Office
Arrests, citations
CONTEMPT OF COURT, FAILURE
TO APPEAR (Baker County warrants):
Robert Wayne Jarboe, 46, Huntington,
6:32 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 2 in Hunting-
ton; jailed.
‘The greater good is
happening’
Melissa said the experi-
ences over the past year,
since Joshua made that
strange comment during the
Christmas photo session,
have been traumatic for her
family.
In addition to the images
that invade her thoughts —
scenes of her son in a cell,
hearing voices — Melissa
also confronts daily the real-
ity of Joshua’s bedroom, just
as it was not so long ago.
“What the heck do I do
with my kid’s bedroom?”
she asks, her eyes closed. “I
always envisioned him mov-
ing out when he was 18, but
not like this. It’s not what
you envision when you have
kids.”
Melissa said she and her
husband discussed the pos-
sibility of bailing out Joshua,
and bringing him home.
But she said that wasn’t a
viable option.
Melissa said she worried
about being responsible for
what Joshua, who she de-
scribed as a “whole different
person” now, might do if he
wasn’t confined.
“How safe would he be?”
she asks, almost as if she’s
speaking to herself. “What if
he goes out and hurts some-
one? How could you live with
something like that? It’s a
very hard choice.”
With Christmas looming,
Melissa is glad that Joshua
will be in Salem, supervised
by mental health profession-
als.
She hopes she’ll be able
to visit him there before the
end of the year.
“I feel like it has worked
out, he’s going to get actual
treatment,” she said. “The
greater good is happening.”
Melissa said she decided
to share Joshua’s story, and
her family’s ordeal, because
she hopes that their ex-
perience can contribute to
improving the legal system,
and in particular the options
available for inmates who
have mental health issues.
“I’m willing to be trans-
parent so changes can occur,”
she said. “We can do better.
I don’t want to see this hap-
pen to anybody else’s kid.”
about the poisonings is asked
to contact OSP through the
Turn-In Poachers Hotline at
1-800-452-7888, or email TIP@
state.or.us referencing case
number SP21-033033.
— Capital Press reporter
George Plaven contributed to
this report.
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