WEDNESDAY, JUNE 14, 2017
Houfmuse arraigned on murder
charges in Hermiston shooting
By Hermiston Herald
Murder charges were
filed
Tuesday
against
Tyree Quaddray Houfmuse
in connection to a fatal
shooting in Hermiston last
month.
The Umatilla County
District Attorney’s Office
filed charges of first-degree
manslaughter and murder
against Houfmuse, 35, of
Tacoma, for the death of
James Cragun. The district
attorney also filed a charge
of felon in possession of a
firearm.
Houfmuse has been in
the Umatilla County Jail,
Pendleton, since police
caught him Monday in con-
nection to Cragun’s shoot-
ing death May 27 in Herm-
iston.
Houfmuse attended the
arraignment via video,
speaking from the jail. He
was represented by defense
attorney Kara Davis of
Intermountain Public De-
fenders.
Davis asked to defer en-
tering a plea until the de-
fense had time to look at
preliminary police reports
and other relevant docu-
ments.
Prosecu-
tor Jaclyn
Jenkins with
the Umatilla
County Dis-
trict Attor-
Tyree
ney’s office
Houfmuse
said
that
it
would
be possible to get some
of those documents to the
defense. She asked that
Houfmuse be held on no
bail, due to his charges and
repeated offenses. She also
asked for a couple of weeks
so the case could be taken
through grand jury.
Davis said that bail had
to be set.
“There’s no facts. We
don’t have an indictment
yet,” she said.
Jenkins repeated the re-
quest for no bail, but said if
the court wanted to set bail,
she asked that it be set at $1
million, due to Houfmuse’s
prior violent crimes.
Davis said that Houf-
muse qualified for indi-
gent defense, and that a
million dollars was ex-
travagant.
Judge Dan Hill set the
bail at $1 million, citing
the nature of Houfmuse’s
charges.
Houfmuse will appear
before a grand jury later
this week. A preliminary
hearing is set for June 20
at 8:15 a.m. at the Stafford
Hansell Building in Herm-
iston.
Cragun’s mother and sis-
ter were in the courtroom
for the arraignment.
“Hopefully, this time he
stays in jail and doesn’t get
the chance to do this to any-
body else,” said Cragun’s
sister, Cynthia Bailey.
Bailey said from what
she had heard, her brother
and Houfmuse knew each
other back in high school,
but did not know much
about their relationship at
the time of the shooting.
She also stated that Houf-
muse was seeing her broth-
er’s ex-girlfriend.
Houfmuse was arrested
Monday by Umatilla po-
lice after a traffic stop and
turned over to Hermiston
Police Department before
he was lodged in the Uma-
tilla County Jail in Pendle-
ton.
Two seriously injured in crash
Hermiston Herald
Two Boardman residents
were seriously injured in a
three-vehicle collision on
Highway 207 on Monday
near Interstate 84.
A teenager was seriously
injured, and was taken by
air to a hospital in Richland
and later to Spokane.
Oregon State Police is
investigating the crash,
which took place at 10:31
a.m. Monday. The inves-
tigation thus far indicates
that Markus Smith, 20, was
driving a silver Pontiac
Grand Am with a 13-year-
old male passenger. The
Pontiac was at the stop sign
at the top of the I-84 east-
bound exit ramp of exit
182.
The Pontiac pulled onto
Highway 207 and into the
path of a commercial vehi-
cle operated by Kevin Hel-
zer of Hermiston.
The Pontiac sideswiped
Helzer’s vehicle and spun,
striking another vehicle,
which was facing south and
waiting to turn onto I-84
eastbound.
Smith was seriously in-
jured and transported by
ground ambulance to Good
Shepherd Medical Center in
Hermiston. The boy, whose
name was not released by
HERMISTONHERALD.COM • A3
LOCAL NEWS
OSP, suffered critical inju-
ries and was transported by
LifeFlight to Kadlec Medi-
cal Center in Richland, and
then to a Spokane hospital.
Helzer and Glen Sharp, the
driver of the other com-
mercial vehicle, were not
injured.
As of Tuesday morning,
the condition of both Smith
and his passenger were un-
known.
Good Shepherd said
Smith was no longer a pa-
tient at the hospital, but
did not say whether he had
been released or transport-
ed to another facility for
further care.
City Council passes
$57.3 million budget
By JADE McDOWELL
Staff Writer
The Hermiston City
Council passed a $57.3
million budget for 2017-
2018 on Monday.
The budget appropri-
ates money for a number
of large projects, including
construction of the new se-
nior center downtown, the
West Highland Trail for
bicycles and pedestrians,
new money-saving sol-
ids-handling equipment for
the recycled water treat-
ment plant and various up-
grades to city parks.
On the personnel side,
all staff will receive a 2.5
percent cost of living in-
crease, and the city is add-
ing a building maintenance
position and a human re-
sources specialist.
The council also put on
its Hermiston Urban Re-
newal Agency hat to pass
the agency’s budget, most
of which will be dedicated
to a $900,000 festival street
project on NE Second
Street in front of City Hall.
After passing the bud-
get, the council approved a
bid from National Meter &
Automation Inc. to replace
all city water meters with
remote-read meters and
insulate them. The project
was paid for by $1.2 mil-
lion in bonds that will be
repaid through the rate in-
crease the council enacted
in 2016.
Prior to the regular City
Council meeting the coun-
cil held a work session to
hear a presentation from
Umatilla County Fire Dis-
trict 1 Chief Scott Stanton
about the fire district’s first
year as a combined district
with Stanfield and Hermis-
ton.
Stanton said the first
year has gone well, and
has given the community
added benefits such as 24/7
staffing at Station 22 on Di-
agonal Road. He said there
have been two house fires
where response time was
cut down from seven min-
utes to under two minutes
due to that change. He also
said that since January the
district has had only one
delay of service where an
ambulance could not im-
mediately respond to a call
because everyone was al-
ready in service, which is a
much lower number than in
previous years.
Stanton said the dis-
trict’s call volume was up
6.5 percent in 2016 com-
pared to 2015, with a 22
percent increase in fires
and a continued upward
trend of motor vehicle
crashes.
“Distracted
driving
seems to be a common
theme,” he said.
Stanton said the district
will be holding a ground-
breaking sometime within
the next month for the new
four-story training tow-
er that the department is
building out at the Westland
Road station in partnership
with Blue Mountain Com-
munity College. The dis-
trict is also working with
Good Shepherd Medical
Center on creating a com-
munity paramedic program
that will potentially help
cut down on ambulance
runs and emergency room
visits by working with
community members on
managing chronic diseases
and following post-opera-
tion discharge instructions.
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