BEND, Ore. (KOIN) — Kaylee Sawyer’s family and friends packed a Deschutes County courtroom Monday as her killer, Edwin Lara, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Lara, 32, pleaded guilty to aggravated murder for the random and brutal slaying of the 23-year-old Bend woman in July 2016. In exchange for the guilty plea, the Deschutes County District Attorney agreed not to seek the death penalty.
If Lara is sentenced in any other case it will be served concurrently.
New details
Kaylee Sawyer was out for a walk late on the night of July 23, 2016. On that walk came into contact with Edwin Lara, who was working as a security guard at Central Oregon Community College.
He picked her up, put her in the back of his security car, took her purse and phone and drove her to a remote campus parking lot. The district attorney called the security car a “cage car.” The backdoors of the vehicle could only be opened from the outside.
“It was designed to hold and transport people who were in custody,” said Deschutes County District Attorney John Hummel.
Prosecutors said she fought for her life.
Lara used a rock to kill Kaylee and then dumped her body in a small ravine near Redmond. Later on he moved her to another spot off the highway between Redmond and Sisters.
She was found a few days later.
You can watch a video summary of the case from District Attorney John Hummel by clicking the still image below
Friends and family of Kaylee
Tears and intense anger were on display in the courtroom as Kaylee’s family and friends filled the chamber. Family members told the judge how Kaylee’s death impacted their lives.
Among the speakers who addressed the court was Kaylee’s mother, Juli Walden Van Cleave. She called Lara a “monster,” “deranged” and a “murderer.”
Jim Walden, Kaylee’s grandfather, told the court he had 3 wishes: that Kaylee was alive and still with them, that the state would impose the death penalty on Lara “and number 3, I wish the court system and the State of Oregon would just hand him over to me and allow me to administer the death sentence.”
Walden added, “He will die in prison and it will be a lifetime experience for him. He’ll probably wish he’d been given a death sentence. Rot in hell, scumbag.”
ask God to heal the hearts of the community and Kaylee’s family.
Earlier in January
VanCleave posted on Facebook on January 10 Lara agreed to a plea deal that would send him to prison for life, avoiding a possible death sentence.
In a phone call with KOIN 6 News, she said it’s likely an ending to the court case but it does not ease their pain.
She said justice is served, but “legal justice” is a far cry from what Kaylee deserved.
KOIN 6 News will be in the courtroom for the hearing and will update this story as developments happen.
The case
Kaylee Sawyer had gotten into an argument with her boyfriend late in the day on July 23, 2016. She went for a walk and on that walk came into contact with Edwin Lara, who was working as a security guard at Central Oregon Community College.
She was never seen alive again.
His wife, Isabel Ponce-Lara, was a new Bend police officer. Court documents show he told his wife he hit Kaylee with his patrol car and killed her, then hid her body. He then left the area, and she told investigators she believed he was suicidal.
When their home was searched, police found Kaylee’s blood-soaked purse, bloody women’s and men’s clothing and other belongings in a shed. Kaylee’s body was found and positively identified.
But Deschutes County District Attorney John Hummel didn’t believe his story about the patrol car, and instead pressed for charges that showed Lara intentionally killed Kaylee.
Lara’s multi-state crime spree
When he fled Bend, Lara allegedly committed a number of other crimes: kidnapped a 19-year-old woman from the parking lot of a Salem-area strip mall, then crossed into California and went on a crime spree.
The mayhem in the former gold-mining town of Yreka started near dawn when a man was shot in the stomach at the Super 8 Motel. The man was hospitalized in critical condition. Police told KOIN 6 News at the time they believed Lara was behind the shooting.
Five minutes after police got the call about the shooting, another man phoned in from a gas station, saying his car had been taken with his wife and two sons still inside.
“The man had come out of the gas station to see his dog running around and his car gone,” Yreka Police Chief Brian Bowles told The Associated Press.
Bowles said Lara forced one of the man’s sons to drive at gunpoint. The mother and sons were later dropped off at a rest stop.
The California Highway Patrol arrested Lara after chasing him at speeds over 100 mph. The Salem teen was also arrested, but authorities soon dropped the charges and released her when they determined she was a kidnap victim.
Prosecutors originally sought the death sentence for Lara, who is a legal permanent US resident and a citizen of Honduras.
His confession, obtained during a 6-hour interview with California detectives, cannot be used as evidence in court because the judge said Lara asked for a lawyer prior to speaking with detectives but was not allowed to.
Sawyer family lawsuit
In July 2017, Kaylee Sawyer’s family filed a lawsuit in Eugene that asserts she accepted a ride from Lara, believing he was a police officer she could trust. Instead, she became trapped in a patrol car equipped with a cage and doors that wouldn’t open from the inside.
The lawsuit alleges the college failed to do an adequate background check on Lara and was negligent in providing officers with uniforms and vehicles made to resemble police.
