*All information presented herein is obtained from publicly available Oregon court and law enforcement records. The Oregon Public Records Law, as detailed in the Attorney General’s Public Records and Meeting Manual, allows public access to these records. Every individual named or referenced is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
Editor’s note: Following is a round-up of Linn County Circuit Court proceedings involving local residents. Court proceedings have been somewhat sporatic during the COVID pandemic, hence some delays in resolution or reporting of trial outcomes.
♦ Brenton Wade Richmond, 50, has pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree murder in the deaths of his ex-girlfriend and a man who was at her home.
Richmond, a former Lebanon police officer, was facing trial on four counts of aggravated murder and one count of first-degree burglary. The charges were related to the Feb. 7, 2019 deaths of Tammy Hopper and Erik Jacobs in Hopper’s home, in the 200 block of Shannon Drive in Lebanon.
According to police and court records, the couple were found dead from gunshots in the master bedroom after Richmond entered the home unannounced. He was arrested at the U.S.-Mexico border by U.S. border patrol officers.
Richmond would have faced a minimum sentence of life in prison with a possibility of parole after 30 years, with a maximum sentence of life without parole. A 12-person jury trial had been scheduled for Feb. 4. He will be sentenced following a Feb. 16-18 hearing.
♦ Amber Marie Scott was found guilty of second-degree manslaughter and sentenced to six years in prison in December, in connection with the death of a 1-year-old boy.
Scott, 22, was babysitting Asher Benjamin Carter on Feb. 19, 2019 when she smothered the baby to make him stop crying.
Scott was found not guilty of a more severe first-degree manslaughter charge, the jury having decided she did not show “extreme indifference to the value of human life.” She did, however, “recklessly cause the death of another human being,” and so was still found guilty of the lesser charge.
♦ David Russell Coats, 38, faces charges of second and third-degree sexual abuse in addition to a related charge for tampering with a witness. The alleged victim was 16 at the time of the sexual assault in Lebanon, which occurred on Nov. 16, 2018. The original trial was scheduled for April 2020, but was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic. A new, two-day 12-person trial for the sexual assault case is set for May 26-27, 2021. A trial for the witness tampering case is set for June 22, 2021.
♦ William Lyle Parker, 34, was indicted in November 2020 on four counts of first degree sexual abuse, one count of third degree sexual abuse, attempted sodomy, and unlawful sexual penetration. The seven counts are related to five separate criminal episodes in 2013 and 2014 in Lebanon involving the abuse of a child under the age of 12. A jury trial is set for July 20-21, 2021.
♦ Dylan Robb, 21, pled no contest to charge of fourth-degree assault related to a March 11, 2020 assault against Austin Riley Robb. He was sentenced to 75 days in jail for the charge.