WEDNESDAY, MARCH 28, 2018
HERMISTONHERALD.COM • A13
NEWS
Highland Hills
wins Battle of the
Books competition
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
The Highland Hills Battle of the Books team won first
place at the regional competition, and will go to State
in Salem next month. The team includes fifth-graders
Alea Garrett, Reagan Stanek, Avena Garrett and Hailey
Magallanes.
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Gretchen Erickson receives the Golden Sparky award from Oregon State Fire Marshal Jim Walker March 22 during the Oregon
Fire Marshals Association’s annual conference. Also pictured are Scott Goff, Umatilla County Fire District #1 fire marshal; and
Tom Bohm, former Hermiston fire marshal.
Fire safety outreach sparks award
By TAMMY MALGESINI
COMMUNITY EDITOR
Gretchen Erickson, fire
safety educator for Uma-
tilla County Fire District
#1, recently received the
Golden Sparky award.
Presented by State Fire
Marshal Jim Walker, it is
the highest honor given by
the Oregon state fire mar-
shal’s office in recogniz-
ing outstanding achieve-
ment in fire prevention and
safety education. Erickson
accepted the award March
22 during the annual con-
ference of the Oregon Fire
Marshals Association, held
in Bend.
“This means a lot to me,”
Erickson said. “I just feel
like this is the icing on the
cake for my career.”
After serving with the
Hermiston Police Depart-
ment for 23 years, Erick-
son wasn’t looking for a job
in 2004 when offered the
position with the Hermis-
ton fire district. However,
she jumped at the chance to
continue working with kids
and the community.
“For the past 14 years,
Gretchen Erickson has vis-
ited elementary schools
throughout the Hermis-
ton School District teach-
ing students how to keep
themselves and others fire
safe,” Walker said in pre-
senting the award. “Over
the years, Gretchen’s les-
sons have had an enormous
positive effect on hundreds
of school children. She is
certainly deserving of the
Golden Sparky.”
Scott Goff, Umatilla
County Fire District #1 fire
marshal; and Tom Bohm,
former fire marshal, were
both on hand during the
award presentation. Both
men, as well as fire chief
Scott Stanton, said Erick-
son is very deserving of the
honor.
Bohm, who recently
retired, said over the years
he sat in on a number of her
classroom presentations.
“She does a great job,”
he said. “She kept them
entertained but more impor-
tantly, they learn.”
Stanton said it’s some-
times hard to measure the
impact of fire prevention
education with youths. Peo-
ple, he said, don’t know how
often children remind their
parents to check the battery
in their smoke detectors or
encourage them to create a
safety plan after participat-
ing in a class with Erickson.
During the award pre-
sentation, Walker shared
about a 2009 incident when
Jazmin Silva, then a student
at Desert View Elementary
School, utilized information
she learned from Erickson
when a fire broke out in her
family’s kitchen.
“Shortly after black
smoke starting filling the air
in her home, Jazmin remem-
bered Gretchen’s lessons
and grabbed her 5-month
old cousin, took her 2-year
old cousin by the hand, and
told her 7-year old cousin
to hold onto her shirt as
Jazmin led them outdoors to
safety,” Walker shared from
an East Oregonian article.
Erickson estimates she
sees an average of 2,000
students a month. The stu-
dents, she said, seem to
have as much fun as she
does. Erickson said she
works hard to be creative
in her presentations in an
effort to keep the attention
of the students.
“They are really happy
that they don’t have to
do math when I come in
the room,” she said with a
laugh. “They are jumping
up and down cheering.”
Heppner man
killed in crash
near Lexington
HERMISTON HERALD
LEXINGTON — Joshua
Kenneth Herrig of Heppner
died March 21 in a car crash
near Lexington.
Oregon State Police
reported troopers and other
emergency personnel at
about 5:30 p.m. responded
to the report of a single-ve-
hicle crash on Highway 74
near milepost 31, just north
of Lexington.
The preliminary inves-
tigation revealed a 1999
Dodge pickup was traveling
north on Highway 74 when
the driver lost control of the
vehicle and rolled several
times.
State police identified the
driver as Anthony Enriquez,
42, of Ukiah. An ambulance
took him to Pioneer Memo-
rial Hospital, Heppner, for
non-life threatening injuries.
The crash ejected Herrig,
the passenger. He died at the
scene. He was 35.
By JAYATI
RAMAKRISHNAN
STAFF WRITER
Knowledge is power,
and Hermiston students
will wield that power next
month at the statewide
Battle of the Books com-
petition in Salem. After
competing against several
other schools at a regional
competition last week-
end, Hermiston’s High-
land Hills Elementary
School team came out vic-
torious, taking first place
from a pool of 18 schools
throughout Eastern Ore-
gon. Rocky Heights’ team
placed second.
Kristi Smalley, the
Hermiston School Dis-
trict elementary schools
librarian, said the top two
Hermiston teams faced
each other in the finals at
Hermiston High School
last Saturday, but only the
first-place team will go to
state. Last year, she said,
the Rocky Heights team
got first and went to state.
After competing at
in-school competitions for
the first half of the year,
each Hermiston school
sent a team to the regional
competition to face off
against teams from as far
away as Jordan Valley and
Vale, Smalley said.
“All five of the Herm-
iston teams scored really
well in pool play,” she
said.
Middle
and
high
school teams competed at
the tournament, too, but
Smalley said no Hermis-
ton teams placed at those
levels.
Melissa Garrett, the
Highland Hills coach and
mother of two of the four
students on the winning
team, said third through
fifth grade students across
the state are assigned 16
books at the beginning of
the year. Those books vary
in subject, spanning fiction
and nonfiction genres.
“They make teams from
each school, and are asked
questions about different
things,” she said. “Each
school has a competition,
and from each school,
teams go to regionals.”
Garrett said all of
Hermiston’s elementary
schools had teams at the
regional competition.
The first-place team
included four fifth-graders
from Highland Hills: Alea
and Avena Garrett, Hailey
Magallanes and Reagan
Stanek.
Garrett said the stu-
dents are quizzed on the
same books at all levels of
competition.
“The questions they ask
just get harder,” she said.
Warrant scam returns
to Umatilla County
HERMISTON HERALD
PHOTO CONTRIBUTED BY OREGON STATE POLICE
The passenger in a pickup died Wednesday on Highway 74
north of Lexington.
“Alcohol, speed and
safety restraints are being
considered as factors in this
crash,” state police reported.
Police closed the highway
for upward of three hours to
investigate the crash. The
Morrow County Sheriff’s
Office, the Heppner and Ione
fire departments and the Ore-
gon Department of Transpor-
tation assisted state police.
The Umatilla County
Sheriff’s Office reported a
warrant scam once again is
circulating in the county.
“The scammer calls a
potential victim, claims
to be from our agen-
cy’s
warrant
depart-
ment and demands pay-
ment of money to resolve
the issue,” according to a
statement from the sher-
iff’s office.
One victim stayed on
the phone while going to
a store to buy a prepaid
debit card, then provided
the caller with the card
numbers.
“Please be aware, these
calls are always a scam,”
the sheriff’s office warned.
Law enforcement does not
call people to request pay-
ment to resolve a warrant
or pay a fine.
“If the Umatilla County
Sheriff’s Office was aware
of a warrant for your
arrest, we would visit you
in person to arrest you,”
the agency stated. “You
can be assured we will not
be giving you a call ahead
of time to alert you.”
The sheriff’s office
reported that it notified the
FBI about the scam.
Houfmuse pushes for release, claims self-defense in shooting
By JAYATI RAMAKRISHNAN
STAFF WRITER
A
Hermiston
man
accused of murder and jailed
for nearly a year will be
considered for release next
month. His attorney claims
he was acting in self-de-
fense during a confrontation
in which another man who
had been sending threaten-
ing text messages about him
was shot and killed.
Tyree Houfmuse has been
in the Umatilla County Jail
since his arrest in June 2017
following the fatal shoot-
ing of James Cragun at a
Hermiston apartment com-
plex over Memorial Day
weekend.
A hearing that began
Tuesday at the Hermiston
Circuit Court will continue
April 18. Judge Eva Tem-
ple will consider releas-
ing Houfmuse, who faces
charges of murder, man-
slaughter, and felon in pos-
session of a firearm.
The trial was originally
scheduled for late April,
but in February prosecutors
for the District Attorney’s
office requested postpone-
ment until November as they
waited for results from the
state crime lab. Houfmuse’s
attorney, Kara Davis, said if
the trial is postponed, Houf-
muse will have been in jail
for more than a year while
presumptively innocent.
Temple allowed both
attorneys to give their open-
ing statements Tuesday, but
said the volume of evidence
that she needed to review
would prevent the hearing
from being concluded in one
day.
Temple said she has to
review more than 14 hours
of video, audio and writ-
ten evidence. That includes
interviews with witnesses
who were with Houfmuse
the night of the shooting,
Hermiston Police officers
and Houfmuse himself. She
will also review text mes-
sages between various par-
ties, including between Cra-
gun and his ex-girlfriend,
who was with Houfmuse the
night Cragun died.
According to witness
accounts from that night,
detailed in a search warrant
affidavit from Hermiston
Police officers, Cragun came
to his ex-girlfriend’s apart-
ment and charged toward
her. Houfmuse and Cragun
fought, the accounts stated,
and a gun went off in Cra-
gun’s hand while they were
fighting.
Davis said that Houfmuse
was within his rights because
he acted in self-defense.
She cited case law that
details what a person is
allowed to do if they feel
their personal safety is being
threatened. If bodily harm
is imminent, she said, the
person is within their rights
to use lethal force against
someone threatening them.
She then went on to read
some text messages included
in the evidence presented
to the judge. The messages
were from Cragun to his
ex-girlfriend, who had been
with Houfmuse the night
Cragun died. Cragun had
been convicted of assault-
ing the same woman two
years ago, and in most cases
the Hermiston Herald does
not name domestic violence
victims.
Davis said the day after
he pleaded guilty, Cragun
continued to send his ex-girl-
friend texts. Davis read some
of the texts, in which Cra-
gun made threats against his
own life, as well as against
the safety of the woman and
anyone she was seeing.
“If there’s another man in
your life, either me or him
is going to get hurt,” said
one of the texts that Davis
read. Other texts made direct
threats against Houfmuse’s
life.
“I think it’s pretty reason-
able to assume that Mr. Cra-
gun was intending to hurt
Mr. Houfmuse and [Cra-
gun’s ex-girlfriend],” Davis
said.
Davis said toxicology
reports for Cragun had just
come back, and Cragun had
methamphetamines in his
system.
She said while the state
would point out Houfmuse’s
demeanor and the placement
of the bullet, he was still
within his rights.
District Attorney Dan Pri-
mus said he would reserve
his argument for “proof is
evident and presumption
strong” at the next meeting.
In Oregon, if the state can
convince a judge that there
is a strong enough presump-
tion that a person is guilty of
murder, the judge can order
them to be held without bail.
Cragun’s sister, Cyn-
thia Bailey, said she hoped
the judge would realize that
only one side of her broth-
er’s actions was being pre-
sented during the hearing..
“As far as the text mes-
sages read in court, they’ve
only seen one side,” she
said. “They haven’t even
accessed Jimmy (Cragun)’s
phone to see the horri-
ble things that were said to
him.”