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Clemency sought in 1997 double murder
Clemency request
SEEN FROM SEASIDE
R.J. MARX
I
n July 1997, Jesse McAllister and Brad-
ley Price killed two people in what was
described as “thrill killings” on the
beach.
Frank “Kacy” Nimz, 36, was a com-
mercial fi sherman and landscaper. Gabri-
ella “Brooke” Goza, 26, an artist, was the
daughter of a prominent local family and
the mother of a young child.
Now, Christian Eickelberg, an attor-
ney, has asked Gov. Kate Brown to convert
McAllister’s sentence to life with the pos-
sibility of parole so McAllister can petition
the parole board and show he is capable of
rehabilitation.
The petition for clemency, Eickelberg
writes, “strives to tell Jesse’s life story,
including what he remembers happen-
ing before, during and after his crimes, and
how he has transformed into the man he is
today.”
Tashae Nimz, Frank Nimz’s daugh-
ter, was 13 at the time of the sentencing in
1999.
She said McAllister’s request for clem-
ency came out of left fi eld.
“As I read through this several times,
looking and searching for any inclination of
remorse or empathy towards the family, and
not just from Jesse’s part but on all of his
family members and friends that wrote upon
his behalf, I didn’t fi nd anything in there,”
Nimz said. “I found nothing apologizing for
the trauma that this has caused and the life-
long devastation that it’s caused my family.”
Seaside Signal
Jesse McAllister in Clatsop County after being apprehended crossing the U.S.-Mexico border
in 1999.
Manhunt
Steve Barnett, then a Seaside Police
Department sergeant, led the investigation
into the murders.
Now retired, Barnett said at the
time McAllister was “a violent kind of
gang-banging type of kid who was not
afraid of anything.”
Barnett described Price, who worked
at the local video store, as a follower. He
had been a star athlete at Brookings High
School, attended the University of Oregon
for a year before dropping out and coming
to the North Coast.
His life was on a downhill spiral. Bar-
nett described him as “an estranged college
kid that sat around and drank Robitussin to
get high.”
What made their crime particularly hor-
rifi c was the “hunting” McAllister and Price
did during the weeks before the night of the
murder, Barnett said. McAllister and Price
had cruised area beaches in McAllister’s
car.
“They were searching for someone to
kill,” Barnett said.
The night of the murder, McAllister and
Price, after making conversation with girls
at a bonfi re on the beach, returned to the
Prom and headed downtown. It was near
closing time for local bars.
“Frank and Brooke had just left one
of the local taverns,” Barnett said. “They
(McAllister and Price) started a conversa-
tion with them, asking if they wanted to
go smoke a bowl of weed. They agreed,
and they walked from the bar down to the
Prom.”
McAllister recommended that they go
out on the beach over the dunes, Barnett
said. “There’s a little swing set there, and
that’s where the deed took place. Clearly
through the whole ordeal, Jesse McAllister
was the mastermind.”
Both victims suff ered fatal gunshots to
the head — shots fi red by McAllister.
The killers “stopped at Herb’s Quick
Mart and bought a couple of cigarette light-
ers,” Barnett said. “Jesse tells the clerk —
who’s a friend of his — ‘I just shot two peo-
ple on the beach.’”
In the days to come, police combed
through evidence, interviewed potential wit-
nesses, issued fl yers and traced leads.
It wasn’t until Seaside police received a
tip that McAllister and Price were on their
way to California or Mexico that they were
able to get murder warrants for their arrest.
The manhunt continued for almost a
year, coming to the attention of “Ameri-
ca’s Most Wanted,” a TV show dedicated to
fi nding fugitives. Hundreds of tips poured in
and law enforcement agencies fi elded calls
from around the country.
Seaside Signal
The view inside the Clatsop County Courthouse as Jesse McAllister was led into court in February 1999.
ico City, where the men had been sharing an
apartment.
Plea deal
Seaside Signal
Jesse McAllister in 1999.
The “thrill kill” aspect intrigued local
and national media — it was reported that
McAllister and Price had rented “In Cold
Blood” repeatedly before the murders. The
movie, based on Truman Capote’s best-sell-
ing book, tells the story of two young men
who murder a Kansas family with a shotgun
in 1959.
In July 1998, McAllister was appre-
hended as he attempted to cross the border
from Mexico into Brownsville, Texas.
Price was arrested two days later in Mex-
Both McAllister and Price were charged
with two counts of aggravated murder.
McAllister was also charged with being an
ex-felon in possession of a fi rearm.
In return for the guilty plea, after con-
versations with relatives, then-Clatsop
County District Attorney Josh Marquis
agreed not to seek the death penalty and
not to prosecute any of McAllister’s family
members who may have sent him money or
talked to him during his yearlong fl ight to
avoid prosecution.
In a February 1999 hearing, McAllister
pleaded guilty to the two murder counts.
“In the early morning hours of July 14,
1997, I was walking on the beach near the
Promenade in Seaside,” McAllister told
the court. “There I met Ms. Goza and Mr.
Nimz. Together we walked away from the
sand dunes. I intentionally shot Mr. Nimz
in the head while he was standing. I then
shot Ms. Goza in the head while she lay in
the sand.”
Price was sentenced to prison for two
consecutive life terms for his role in the
killings. He is lodged at the Snake River
Correctional Institution and is eligible to
seek parole after 30 years in prison.
McAllister is serving two consecutive
life terms at the Oregon State Penitentiary.
“Jesse was an angry, insecure 19-year-
old who lashed at others — culminating in
him taking the lives of two people,” Eickel-
berg, McAllister’s lawyer, wrote in a Sep-
tember letter accompanying the petition.
“At the time, even though he knew that
what he had done was wrong, it took Jesse
some time to truly come to terms with the
fact that he had taken two lives and how
this impacted so many people in the Sea-
side community.
“Jesse feels constant remorse for the
pain he senselessly infl icted on the vic-
tims’ families and his own family, and
strives each day to be a better person than
he was the day before. Today, he is a car-
ing, friendly man that adults in custody and
staff members enjoy being around.”
Even if the clemency for the life sen-
tences is granted, Eickelberg said, McAllis-
ter would still need to wait two more years
before receiving a rehabilitation hearing.
Pending the results of that hearing, McAl-
lister could then request a parole hearing.
Clatsop County District Attorney
Ron Brown said he was surprised by the
request.
He said he and Marquis are working on
a response to the petition.
“We’re putting together a big-time
opposition to it, because we don’t want to
see the guy out,” Brown said. “I’ve been
here 18 years, but this case predated me.
And it was one handled personally by Josh
Marquis. I wasn’t here then, but when you
work in a county, you hear about some
of the bigger murders, and particularly
unsolved and solved murders. So the mur-
der on the Seaside beaches was always a
case that everybody knew about, because it
was such a ruthless thing.”
Marquis said he was “horrifi ed” when he
learned of McAllister’s clemency request.
When Marquis made the plea deal, he
said he had many conversations with the
Nimz and Goza family. “I told them what I
believed to be true, that that meant that we
would never, ever hear from Jesse McAl-
lister again,” he said. “There would be no
parole hearing, there would be no appeals
court.”
Marquis said the murders stand out in
his 25 years as district attorney, “both in
terms of the utter innocence of the victims
and the cruelty and brutality of it.
“And I support the death penalty when
it’s appropriate, and I don’t spend sleepless
nights thinking he couldn’t get executed.
But I certainly would be having sleepless
nights if I thought he was going to get out
— not for me, for the community.”
The families of the two victims will also
weigh in.
“It didn’t take away my dreams and
ambitions from coming to fruition,” Tashae
Nimz said. “I still worked really hard and
got into college and I have a really good
career, but it defi nitely makes things a lot
more diffi cult. It did devastate our fam-
ily and tear my family completely apart.
My older brother has never fully recovered
from the incident. He suff ers greatly from
the trauma that he endured because of this.
He was 17 at the time. He was just abso-
lutely devastated.”
The process could take about six months
before a decision is made, although some
cases may be longer, the governor’s press
secretary, Liz Merah, said in an email.
“Gov. Brown believes that granting
clemency is an extraordinary act that is
generally reserved for individuals who
have made incredible changes and who are
dedicated to making their communities bet-
ter, which is why many clemency appli-
cations are denied,” she said. “The gov-
ernor evaluates clemency applications on
a case-by-case basis and considers a vari-
ety of factors about the applicant’s history
and case when making those decisions.
Information is provided from a variety of
sources during the review process, includ-
ing from law enforcement, prison offi cials,
and the district attorney’s offi ce, which
includes input from victims.
“The governor understands that fami-
lies may have concerns when someone is
being considered for clemency, which is
why she takes the review process very seri-
ously,” Merah said. “Victims always have
an opportunity to be heard through trau-
ma-informed outreach by the district attor-
ney’s offi ce. The governor does not grant
clemency without considering input from
the victim through the DA.”
Erick Bengel of The Astorian contrib-
uted to this report.
PUBLIC MEETINGS
Avenue A.
WEDNESDAY, NOV. 3
THURSDAY, NOV. 4
Seaside Improvement
Commission, 6 p.m., 989
Broadway.
Seaside Parks Advisory Com-
mittee, 6 p.m., 989 Broadway.
TUESDAY, NOV. 2
Seaside Library Board of
Directors, 4:30 p.m., 1131
Broadway St.
Seaside Community Center
Commission, 10 a.m., 1225
Seaside Planning Commis-
sion, 6 p.m., 989 Broadway.
Gearhart City Council, 7 p.m.,
cityofgearhart.com.
Contact local agencies for
latest meeting information
and attendance guidelines.
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MONDAY, NOV. 8
Seaside City Council, work-
shop on homelessness,
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licenses, 5:30 p.m., 989
Broadway.
WEDNESDAY, NOV. 10
Seaside Civic and Conven-
tion Center Commission,
5 p.m., 415 First Ave.
Seaside City Council,
workshop on business
THURSDAY, NOV. 11
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