Linn County Circuit Court Judge DeAnn Novotny denied a request to set a security release for Trevor Paul Webb, 24, who faces a murder charge in connection with a March 27 incident in which Ryan Chamberlain, 36, was killed on north 13th Avenue in Sweet Home.
She said when she considered the evidence that was presented at the two-hour hearing on Aug. 4, she thought the proof was evident and the presumption strong that Webb is guilty of the offense; consequently she denied the release.
The incident that led to Chamberlain’s death occurred at approximately 6:35 p.m. on March 27. The Sweet Home Police Department received several reports of gunshots around the 1600 block of 13th Avenue, a residential area.
Police responded and located Chamberlain in the driver’s seat of a vehicle, north of the intersection of 13th Avenue and Poplar Street.
According to witness accounts, several people, including Chamberlain, arrived in a car and parked in front of a house in that block of 13th.
Chamberlain, John Pablo Scott Jr. and Sirena Patricio went up to the house, according to court documents summarizing the state’s case.
The “defendant came to the door, words were exchanged, and (the) defendant’s girlfriend, Erica Fogarty, also came to the door.”
Court documents state that a laptop was stolen from the house and Chamberlain, Scott and Patricio returned to the car, The laptop was later found on the floor of the car, according to police documents.
Webb and Fogarty “went out front,” and Webb “fired a handgun, hitting Mr. Chamberlain in the driver’s seat; the car rolled down the street a short way, collided into a garage, and stopped,” according to documents summarizing the state’s case.
Webb and Fogarty were found at the house. Scott and Patricio were located quickly and arrested on outstanding warrants.
According to the summary documents, police seized a firearm and bullet casings in the area outside Webb’s house, a spent bullet and some other handgun ammunition from the car. Fragments of a bullet and a bullet jacket were seized during the autopsy.
Items believed to contain controlled substances were seized from Webb’s house.
Webb appeared in court on Aug. 4 with his court-appointed attorneys, William Redden and Dylan Potter.
Deputy District Attorney George Eder said attorney Michael Wynhausen is also working for the state on this case but had to leave Webb’s hearing early for another commitment.
“The state’s obligation now is to present a summary to the court so you can make a determination that there is evidence to support the charge of murder. That is, his intentional shooting to kill another person,” Eder said.
“I’ll do that today, by offering Cindy Pichardo who is the detective with primary responsibility for the investigation with the Sweet Home Police Department.”
Redden did not make an opening argument. During the closing arguments, Potter said there were disputed accounts of whether the person who stole the laptop had entered the house or not but that Webb’s family was inside.
“I would submit to the court, were this matter to proceed to trial, there is enough evidence for the defense to request an instruction to the jury regarding defense of others and defense of self,” Potter said. “The implication here is that something happened between these two groups of individuals where there was an exchange and what exactly happened in the few second period is in dispute.”
He added that the confrontation that night was initiated by the group of people who went to Webb’s house.
Pichardo answered questions about photographs from the scene and read from interviews that SHPD conducted with Webb, his girlfriend Erica Fogarty, and other witnesses.
The interviews contained conflicting accounts about what happened that night.
In the interviews, Webb and Fogerty offered differing accounts of where the gun used in the shooting came from; he said he got it from a man who spent the previous night at the home he shared with Fogarty and their two young children. Fogarty denied that the man was there.
Pichardo also read from Facebook messages which were obtained through a search warrant.
Those also contained information that conflicted with statements given to police.
Eder said the state was not able to comply with an early-July discovery deadline set by Novotny.
“We’ve recently delivered quite a chunk of documents, the Facebook documents that you’ve heard mention of, and recordings of some phone calls to the defense,” Eder said.
“I know they haven’t had a thorough chance to look at all of that but I wanted to report to the court that we haven’t been able to comply with that deadline. There’s going to be some more electronic searches of some devices that are now in the process of being done.”
Eder added that he and Redden had discussed setting a judicial settlement conference in December or January.
“Mr. Eder spoke about bringing in an out-of-county judge,” Redden said. “There’s a judge in Multnomah County who’s experienced in these things.”
Redden and Eder said they discussed setting a tentative trial date in March or May of next year.
They anticipate a week of jury selection and two-week trial.
“Mr. Eder and I decided that what we would try to do between the two of us is once we’ve had a chance to review all of the discovery, is have a conversation between us and go over what we think are possible motions and inform the court with what we’ve got,” Redden said.
A status check hearing has been scheduled for Oct. 12.