HILLSBORO, Ore. — For a second time, Billy Lee Oatney has been convicted for the 1996 murder of Susi Larsen and sentenced to life in prison. A Washington County jury delivered the verdict on Tuesday at a Hillsboro courthouse, followed by the sentencing hearing.
Oatney was first convicted of the crime back in 1998, serving decades behind bars. But Oatney's attempts at an appeal eventually gained traction in court. In 2015, the Oregon Court of Appeals vacated his conviction, determining that his attorney had not provided adequate representation at trial.
Washington County prosecutors charged Oatney again with Larsen's murder. However, they needed to proceed to trial without key testimony from the original investigation that figured into the appellate court's decision.
Susi Larsen was a 34-year-old graphic designer living in Lake Oswego at the time of her death. She was engaged to her boyfriend, Keith Hippely, but Larsen disappeared just a few weeks before they were set to be married.
Friends immediately began searching, posting up fliers throughout the area. Her body was later recovered in Champoeg Park, and investigators determined that she'd been raped and murdered.
It took investigators months to close in on Oatney and another man as primary suspects in the case. Oatney and Larsen were acquainted, and investigators later said that Oatney had lured Larsen to his Tigard apartment by promising to make her earrings for the wedding.
Oatney had a history of violence as well, something that wasn't common knowledge until after his arrest. He'd been stationed in Japan while serving in the U.S. Navy. During that time, he was arrested and convicted for attempted murder and assault after stabbing another Navy man and slitting his throat.
The attack earned Oatney a 22-year prison sentence, but he was released after just 13 years and settled in Portland.
The other man charged alongside Oatney took a plea deal to avoid the death penalty and agreed to testify against Oatney, and a jury convicted Oatney on eight counts of murder — sentencing him to death. But the attempt by investigators and the original Washington County prosecutors to play the two against one another laid the groundwork for Oatney's later successful appeal.
During questioning early in the investigation, prosecutors offered Oatney immunity in exchange for telling them everything he knew. Oatney blamed everything on the other man, Willard Johnston. Those statements eventually led to Johnston's testimony against Oatney.
The 2015 appeals court opinion ruled that since the testimony originated from the immunity deal with Oatney, something that was later scrapped when prosecutors narrowed in on him as the ringleader in Larsen's murder, a competent defense attorney would have had the testimony suppressed and kept out of the trial. Since Oatney's attorney hadn't done that, the appeals court tossed his conviction.
Prosecutors had no intention of letting Oatney walk free, and he was charged again with Larsen's murder. As a result, though Oatney left prison, he was kept in the Washington County jail for the next 7 years pending a second trial.
That trial began in January, but this time prosecutors had to proceed without Johnston's original testimony, among other challenges posed by the age of the case.
Jury deliberations began Feb. 1, continuing for several days. On Tuesday, the jury delivered its verdict — finding Oatney guilty on five counts of first-degree murder and three counts of second-degree murder.
Members of Larsen's family delivered emotional statements ahead of Oatney's sentencing, urging the judge to hand down a "true life sentence" that would keep the convicted murderer from ever walking free.
"This man here is in perfectly good shape to go and do it again, and he probably wants to," said Keith Hippely, the man who was engaged to marry Susi Larsen. "He has sat there and shown not one ounce of remorse or care about Susi, or any of us, and I think that if there ever was a crime that deserved the punishment of life without parole, it's this one."
"The jury has found Mr. Oatney guilty of the most heinous crime imaginable, to the most wonderful person imaginable," said Susi's cousin, Chris Larsen, who said that they two of them were close enough to be siblings. "Make no mistake your honor, you have plenty of evidence — you know, in your heart, if this guy gets out he will do it again. He looks at the world as potential prey."
Bracken McKey, chief deputy district attorney for Washington County, said that Oatney was "one of the three most dangerous people" he'd seen in his 20-year career, and that his violent conduct only escalated after his first stint in prison.
According to McKey, Oatney had violent sexual fantasies and was prepared to find another victim following Larsen's murder when he was stopped by a police officer.
"The court has the opportunity to save many victims," McKey said. "It was almost unimaginable this weekend, thinking about if the jury came back on Tuesday morning and acquitted this defendant, that the court would have no choice but to turn him loose. And he was going to be turned loose on the Portland metro area, and in all likelihood rape and murder somebody in the next few days. This is just who he is and how he's wired — he is a sick man."
Oatney seemed unfazed by the testimony and opted not to deliver any statement to the judge prior to sentencing.
The judge, for her part, was inclined to agree with Larsen's family and the prosecution. Echoing findings from the jury, she handed Oatney a life sentence.
"There are prior criminal justice sanctions that have not deterred the defendant from reoffending," said Judge Beth Roberts. "Future efforts to rehabilitate the defendant will not be successful and there's a need to ensure the security of the public — with that I will impose life imprisonment without the possibility of parole."