A8 The BulleTin • Sunday, May 2, 2021
Wirkkala
“When you’re locked in a
concrete box 24/7, it’s not con-
ducive to good mental health,”
he said.
After his 2014 conviction,
Wirkkala held out hope that if
he successfully appealed, newly
elected Deschutes County Dis-
trict Attorney John Hummel,
a progressive and onetime de-
fense attorney, 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.”
Continued from A1
The water shut off suddenly,
leaving Wirkkala to take stock
of his life. He was a convicted
murderer shackled to a prison
shower, covered with soap,
shaking uncontrollably, experi-
encing the sensations of freez-
ing and burning 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 recently.
Wirkkala’s experience with
the criminal justice system
was certainly a rare one. He
was tried twice for murder on
essentially the same facts, but
with two different outcomes:
Guilty in 2014 for the death of
his houseguest David Andrew
Ryder, 31, and not guilty April
5 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 Ry-
der had sexually assaulted him.
When Wirkkala’s attorney
argued that the original jury
heard portions of a police in-
terview after Wirkkala had in-
voked 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
Oregon Coast, where he grew
up, eight years after his odys-
sey through the justice system
began.
“I’m still trying to take it all
in,” he said over tea at the As-
toria Brewing Company. “I’m
very easily overwhelmed these
days.”
Wirkkala, now 40, has had
a few beers since his acquittal,
but drinking for him can’t be
like it was before, especially
if he returns to bartending
as a side gig. He had drunk
throughout the day of the
shooting, a Super Bowl Sun-
day, starting with two glasses
of white wine before the game.
A forensic expert determined
his blood alcohol level was be-
tween 0.18 and 0.38 when he
killed Ryder.
“Basically, I was an alcoholic
before,” Wirkkala said. “I don’t
want to go back to that par-
tying 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 overwhelm-
ing, Wirkkala has learned. In
the four weeks since his release,
he’s had to sweat out a driving
test, find a replacement for his
flip 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 dispen-
sary 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 currently con-
cerned with a short list of pri-
orities, like fixing up a truck
Hailey Hoffman/For The Bulletin
Luke Wirkkala, 40, was acquitted last month of murder in the death of David Andrew Ryder in Bend in 2013.
He was incarcerated for eight years, including 4½ in the Deschutes County jail.
given to him by a cousin and
completing the formal process
of getting his record expunged.
He’s looking for a place to live
so he can move out of his par-
ents’ house, where all his pos-
sessions have sat boxed up
since the case began.
Along with sobriety, he
hopes to continue with another
good habit he practiced 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,
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 Wirkka-
la’s writings, and came at a high
cost for him. Financially, he
and his supporters paid more
than a quarter million dollars
in legal bills and other costs.
Reputationally, his name will
always be linked to the killing
in Bend. The experience also
cost him his marriage.
But perhaps most damaging
of all was his loss of freedom.
He spent eight years in custody.
As brutal as prison is, with
its gangs and violence, it’s still
preferable to life in the De-
schutes County jail, he said.
Paradoxically, there was a cer-
tain “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 fit.
The jail, by contrast, is
locked down like a supermax
prison, Wirkkala said. From
2018 to 2021, while await-
ing his second trial, Wirkkala
spent 18 hours each day in a
cell in the Deschutes County
jail. Surrounded by steel and
concrete, he rarely saw the
sun.
Communicating with loved
ones can be costly, he said.
The telecommunications ven-
dor for the Deschutes County
Sheriff’s Office, 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 fine for people
locked up for 30 days, but not
for a lengthy stay. Wirkkala
said he felt his body start to de-
teriorate despite a commitment
George Thomas Crisp
of Bend, OR
January 10, 1932 -
April 26, 2021
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friends to be announced.
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made to:
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to keeping fit 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.
Getting the truth heard
In his time out of jail, Wirk-
kala has also spoken to a num-
ber of reporters, something
he wishes he would have done
earlier.
After he lawyered up in
2013, he urged his two at-
torneys to release an official
statement, to “get the truth out
there,” so the 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 prosecu-
tors 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 the
press as what it is: a tool that
should be used. If you’re not
using it, you’re not providing
your client with the best possi-
ble defense.”
To Wirkkala, lawyering fac-
tored heavily into the outcome
of both trials. He has an active
bar complaint alleging miscon-
duct against the prosecutors
from his first trial, along with
former Deschutes County Dis-
trict Attorney Patrick Flaherty.
Wirkkala also has no love for
Walter Todd, the lead lawyer
in his first trial, whom he sus-
pects thought he was guilty of
at least manslaughter.
“He is largely responsible for
me going to prison,” Wirkkala
said.
Continued on next page
OBITUARY
Eleanor Louise Brown Davidson
August 29, 1929 - April 11, 2021
Free to forever soar above the highest
alti tudes, Eleanor “Ellie” Louise Brown
Davidson, 91, departed our world on
Sunday, April 11, 2021 in Bend, Oregon,
for her grandest adventure in the
heavens of the great beyond.
Eleanor was born on August 29, 1929, to
Manley A. Brown and Harriet D. Kinton
Brown, in Portland, Oregon. Her family
soon relocated to Seatt le, Washington,
where she spent the formati ve years
of her youth yearning for adventure
beyond the city lights. She was drawn to
the violin and began learning the solemn
sigh of its melodic chords, a talent that
would last a lifeti me.
In 1951, she graduated from the University of Washington with a degree in Pharmacy.
While studying at the university, she began exploring her adventurous capabiliti es by
mountain climbing, joining a Seatt le-based alpine club, The Mountaineers. With nothing
but a wood-handled ice axe, steel crampons, and a rope secured between her and her
teammates, she bravely scaled glacier-covered summits throughout the Pacifi c Northwest,
triumphantly ascending Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Olympus, Mt. Baker, Mt. Adams, Glacier Peak,
Mt. Hood, and Mt. Rainier, a peak she conquered twice.
However, Eleanor soon discovered alpine skiing was
her favorite way to tackle a mountain. Reaching speeds
upwards of 40 mph and whipping down snow-covered
slopes, she considered skiing to be, “more glamorous than
climbing mountains.”
While she may have later considered it not a match made
in Heaven, Eleanor was married to D. D. Davidson for
nearly 30 years. Together, they had two children, who were
desti ned to grow up as determined as their unabashed
mother. Eventually, they realized they were not meant
to live the rest of their days in the thralls of each other’s
company and went their separate ways, managing to
maintain a civilized friendship as they aged with grace.
In 1973, the Davidson family moved to Bend, Oregon,
where she began competi ng in Nati onal Standard Race (NASTAR) and Alpine Masters
ski racing events. She believed NASTAR made skiing more fun as it was, “an atmosphere
where you didn’t have to be quite so good,” a status she undoubtedly was - good.
Music was her creati ve outlet of choice, fostering her natural ability to master the eloquent
hum of an illustrious violin. For over 40 years, she performed as a highly regarded violinist
in the Central Oregon Symphony and a founding member of the Dove String Quartet.
In 2001, she reti red as a pharmacist from St. Charles Medical Center in Bend. To the
surprise of absolutely no one, Eleanor was unable to stay reti red. While maintaining a
busy adventuring schedule and learning to play the fi ddle on her violin, albeit not on a
roof, as neighbors would have questi oned her sanity, she volunteered at the Volunteers
in Medicine clinic in Bend. For Eleanor, there was no respite so long as there was sti ll
plenty of work to be done, and she was always ready and willing to do it.
Skiing was her ulti mate favorite thrill, a fi erce passion she conti nued to evolve throughout
her golden years. She skied the mountaintops of France, Chile, and Argenti na, oft en
traveling with friends. Her friends were an intricate part of her life, she never failed to
remember a birthday or holiday card. A circle of mischievous kindred-spirits together,
they never shied away from spontaneous ski trips to Sun Valley, Idaho, where they dared
younger generati ons to challenge their noti ons about age.
Age was genuinely nothing but a number to Eleanor, and it never stopped her from
exploring new scenery. At the youthful age of 85 in 2014, she went on an epic heli-hiking
adventure with her daughter into the Bugaboo Mountains of Canada, trekking through
glacier-strewn wilderness and towering peaks for days.
Her legacy spans far beyond those she knew and loved, inspiring all to achieve their wildest
dreams, no matt er how high that mountain may be. Her children and grandchildren share
her affi nity for skiing at Sun Valley, and will conti nue pushing their limits on the slopes in
her honor. She was the kind of trailblazing woman who enjoyed fried ice cream before
any meal, eternally reminding all who admired her, “life is short, eat dessert fi rst.”
Surviving in a legacy of love are her children, Lisa (Matt ) Cutt er of Bend, OR and Jeff
(Viviana) Davidson of Seregno, Italy; grandchildren, Mitchell Cutt er of Boise, ID,
Shelby Cutt er of Bend, and Isabel Davidson of Seregno, Italy; sisters, Marilyn (Marv
Remillard) Schrum of Burlington, WA and Linda (Ken) White of Seatt le, WA; and a host
of extended family, friends, and acquaintances, all of whom were her greatest source of
accomplishment, pride, and joy.
Preceding her in death are her parents.
In the wake of her absence, Eleanor would encourage us all to dare to dream, take a risk,
and challenge ourselves to try something new outside of our comfort zones - whether it
is fried ice cream or climbing a mountain.
In lieu of fl owers, please consider contributi ng to the Central Oregon Symphony
(cosymphony.com) or Partners In Care (partnersbend.org) in honorable memory of
Eleanor.