The Last Time We Saw Her

by Robert Scott

  Joel Courtney’s defense team soon had a motion of their own. They wanted Courtney’s trial moved out of Benton County, citing all the publicity that had occurred there since May 2004. Then, in a surprise move, DA Haroldson conceded the move to another county without an argument.

  Perhaps stunned by this unexpected turn of events, Steven Krasik told Judge Locke Williams that the request for a move out of Benton County was just a tactic. Krasik added, “It’s quite possible that this county would have been our choice.”

  DA Haroldson was not pleased with all this flip-flopping on the defense’s part. Haroldson said, “The motion has been made and conceded.” And yet, being pragmatic, he added, “I’m ready to try this case in any county in the state! I have confidence in our Benton County jurors, but believe that the truth will not change—no matter which county we’re in.”

  Judge Williams had to go on the assumption that the trial would be moving to another county, and to that end he said he would find out what districts could hold the trial, which promised to be a lengthy one.

  Even Sheriff Diana Simpson chimed in on this matter of flip-flopping by the defense. She told reporters that there were going to have to be a lot of logistics set up for the move to another county and would include high security. She added, “Wherever the trial is held, that’s where Courtney will be held.”

  One thing that no one counted on in all of this was Joel Courtney himself. Always contrary when it came to legal matters, he was staying true to form once again. For some unknown reason Courtney now did not want the trial to leave Benton County. And his sudden turnabout made his attorneys look like fools.

  Steven Krasik and Steven Gorham had to write a motion to Judge Williams why they no longer wanted a change of venue. In part they said that Joel Courtney wanted time to consider if he could get a fair trial in Benton County, based upon a survey of potential jurors. And in a sentence that must have been hard to swallow for the attorneys, they wrote, The defendant asserts that his attorneys did not give him adequate time to reflect on the ramifications of the decision.

  The Gazette-Times noted, Changing stances is not new to Courtney. In 2004, he was arrested for the rape and kidnap of a college student in New Mexico. Just before the start of the 2007 trial, he pleaded guilty to the charges. He then tried to withdraw the plea at the sentencing hearing.

  The Benton County prosecutors must have also been irritated by Courtney’s constant disruptions. DDA Karen Kemper told reporters, “The defendant’s complaint is that he apparently wanted to change the venue, but when he got what he wanted, he doesn’t want it anymore.”

  Soon thereafter, Judge Locke Williams made his decisions on the important matters that had been brought up by the various witnesses during the previous hearing. The prosecution got most of what it wanted, as far as joining the cases of Diane Mason, Jade Bateman, and Brooke Wilberger. Judge Locke Williams let it be known that the cases “were similar in character, and occurred within minutes of each other and within a remarkably limited geographical area. The separately charged offenses are part of a common scheme or plan.”

  Judge Williams ruled on the testimony of Sue McDonald and Sandy Vargas, and he noted that they occurred in 1985 and 1993. These, according to the judge, were too remote, and he would not allow this evidence at trial.

  The evidence about Joel Courtney drinking and using cocaine at the party on May 23, 2004, and his failure to appear at Lincoln County court on May 24, 2004, were going to be allowed in as evidence. And most important of all, the testimony of Diane Mason, Jade Bateman, and Bob Clifford was going to be allowed at trial. These three could put a man matching Joel Courtney’s description, driving a green van, within blocks of the spot where Brooke Wilberger was abducted. A green van that just happened to contain DNA evidence that Brooke had been inside it.

  Steven Krasik and Steven Gorham must have known they were in for a very tough legal battle on the Joel Courtney case. And in a short time, Courtney was about to make their job a lot harder for them.

  CHAPTER 25

  CRIMINAL MISCHIEF

  On July 21, 2009, Joel Courtney was in a medical room at the Benton County Jail with psychiatrist Jon Sobotka. For whatever reason, shortly after 2:00 P.M., Courtney went berserk. He grabbed a fax machine from a desk and threw it at Dr. Sobotka. Then he damaged medical records that pertained to himself and other inmates. The uproar caused a major disturbance in the entire jail as officers came running to Sobotka’s aid.

  Sheriff Diana Simpson said about the incident that doctors and psychiatrists would have extra security in the jail after this fracas. Simpson added that she couldn’t recall the last time a psychiatrist, doctor, or nurse had been assaulted in the jail.

  Once again, defense lawyers had to try to clean up a mess that Joel Courtney had created. The best Steven Krasik could do was tell reporters that jails were stressful places. Krasik said, “Sometimes people respond to stress in ways that create additional problems.”

  The “additional problem” for Courtney was that he now faced more criminal charges. DA John Haroldson brought charges of second-degree-assault, unlawful use of a weapon, menacing, and second-degree criminal mischief. And all of this ended up in Judge Janet Holcomb’s courtroom. The same judge whom previous Benton County DA Scott Heiser said he would not allow to preside over the Brooke Wilberger case.

  With the latest assault in mind, the prosecution asked Judge Williams to make sure that Courtney wore a stun belt when the Wilberger case came to trial. DDA Karen Kemper told the judge, “The safety of courtroom personnel, lawyers, jury, and spectators must be considered in light of Courtney’s alleged assault on Dr. Sobotka. That assault demonstrates his likelihood for violence. During Mr. Courtney’s sentencing in New Mexico, he told the judge he would spit on him if he was close enough.”

  Steven Gorham countered that there would be plenty of deputies in the courtroom at trial, so that Courtney did not need to wear a stun belt. And Gorham added that the injury to Dr. Sobotka was very minor. “It wasn’t like a broken bone or something like that.”

  Judge Locke Williams, however, sided with the prosecution after this latest outburst by Joel Courtney. Williams said that a stun belt was appropriate under the circumstances and Courtney would have to wear a Band-it stun belt device beneath his clothing. The jurors would not be able to see the stun belt.

  In the weeks before trial, the defense peppered the court with an array of motions, most of which the prosecution was against. In one motion the defense wanted individual jurors questioned in voir dire outside the presence of other jurors. This would make the process a very lengthy one. The DA’s office retorted, “To the extent the court is concerned that the entire panel would have to sit in the same room for days on end during voir dire, this problem can be alleviated by separate and smaller panels. There is no need to individually voir dire each juror in seclusion on every issue, as the defendant proposes. This will lengthen the process immeasurably.”

  Already it was a case that had occurred in May 2004 and was still going through the system in 2009. And if anything, the long process of picking jurors in Natalie Kirov’s New Mexico case showed how long voir dire could take, in a case that had even less media exposure.

  In another defense motion they asked the court to bar the prosecution from challenging jurors based on their religious beliefs. Obviously, the defense thought that some jurors’ religious beliefs would not allow them to vote for a death penalty. The prosecution countered that the Oregon Supreme Court and United States Supreme Court both allowed prosecutors to exclude potential jurors based upon their religious beliefs concerning the death penalty. Stephanie Tuttle wrote, The defendant’s proposal denies the state the right to challenge jurors that cannot or will not follow the law.

  Not surprisingly, in light of Joel Courtney having assaulted Dr. Sobotka in a jail office, the defense wanted the judge to exclude expert testimony on issues of Courtney’s future dangerousness. The outbursts that Joel Courtney had engaged in
could definitely come back to haunt him if a trial ever got to the death penalty stage.

  Stephanie Tuttle disagreed and wrote to the judge on this: Defendant’s risk to commit future acts of violence is a fact of consequence in any death penalty case. An expert who testifies about risk factors and ways of evaluating future dangerousness offers testimony that helps a jury understand the evidence in the case. Tuttle stated that under Oregon law, expert testimony in this area was legal and used often, especially during a sentencing phase.

  DDA Karen Kemper was busy on all of this as well. She responded to a defense motion to suppress samples of Joel Courtney’s hair, saliva, and prints from his fingers and palms. The thrust of this motion was that law enforcement had obtained these samples illegally.

  Kemper wrote back that during Courtney’s arrest and incarceration in New Mexico, for the abduction and rape of Natalie Kirov, Corvallis PD detective Shawn Houck had drafted an affidavit in support of a search warrant on Joel Courtney. Detective Hughes, a detective with the Albuquerque Police Department, wrote up his own search warrant on Courtney, based upon Houck’s warrant. Detective Hughes noted that he reviewed Houck’s search warrant request and found that it contains sufficient probable cause for the issuance of this search warrant.

  The New Mexico search warrant asked that the home that Joel Courtney and his wife, Rosy, shared in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, be searched for biological specimens. During that search the detectives noted that string, duct tape, shoestrings, and a rope tied into a noose had been collected. So had a duffel bag identified as belonging to Joel Courtney, a hair tie with blond hair in it, and a floorboard mat with blond hair on it. Because of all of this evidence, Bernalillo County District Court Judge James Blackmer had allowed officers to take four buccal swabs from Joel Courtney, fifty hairs from his head, pubic hairs, and a set of major case prints, including palm prints. DDA Kemper wrote that all of that was legal in New Mexico, and it was now legal in Oregon.

  One of the more unusual motions coming from the defense side was one to require separate juries for the guilt and penalty phases of a trial. As Stephanie Tuttle pointed out, There is no legal authority for this proposition or even authorized by law. The Oregon and United States courts have never held this to be an improper process. The DOJ attorney was referencing the time-honored tradition of one jury for both phases.

  There were other matters percolating along at that time as well that concerned Joel Courtney and the Wilberger family. In the Wilberger civil suit against the company Courtney had been working for when he kidnapped Brooke, the Wilbergers were suing CBM for millions of dollars.

  In response, Jose Lomeli, who had been the regional manager of CBM in May 2004, stated that Joel had been terminated on May 15, 2004—nine days before Brooke was abducted. Lomeli in an affidavit stated that he had personally supervised Joel for a week on a training trip. Lomeli wrote, On the training trip, we stayed at the same motel at night and were together for a week. Mr. Courtney appeared to be very normal in all his interactions with me and our customers and crews. He appeared to drive normally, and did not show any violent behavior to anyone. He did not use the van in any illegal way.

  Lomeli’s opinion of Joel soon changed, however. He wrote in the affidavit that Joel missed appointments, couldn’t be reached on the company cell phone, and would not return calls. There were several complaints from customers. Based on this, Lomeli decided to terminate Courtney on May 15, 2004. Yet even then, Joel Courtney did not return the van or the company cell phone.

  Lomeli stated that he went to Jesus Ordaz’s home in Portland to get the green company van. When he got there, no one was home, and the van was in the driveway. Lomeli had no way of driving the van away without its keys, though. When he made a second trip to the Ordaz home, he noticed the green van was gone.

  Lomeli eventually learned that the company van had been driven to New Mexico by Joel Courtney. Lomeli sent Jesus Ordaz there to retrieve the van, which he did, and Ordaz continued to use the green van on company business until it was seized by authorities several months later.

  Even as the motions and countermotions went back and forth like shuttlecocks in a game of badminton, the all-important trial date crept closer and closer. And as always, Joel Courtney would prove to have an unexpected trick up his sleeve.

  CHAPTER 26

  A BODY IN THE WOODS

  It looked as if after five years, the trial of Joel Courtney for the abduction and murder of Brooke Wilberger was actually going to take place. That was the common consensus in the legal arena and community at large. But there was always one unknown factor in the equation—Joel Courtney. He had shown in past court actions that he was always unpredictable, and he would show that once again in a very dramatic fashion in September 2009.

  Even members of the local media, who had been intently following this story for more than five years, were not aware what was going on behind closed doors in a neighboring county courthouse. Then on September 21, 2009, Joel Courtney was sitting down with his defense lawyers, DA John Haroldson, and Judge Locke Williams; and just as in New Mexico in the Natalie Kirov case, Courtney was about to hammer out a plea deal. What was at stake this time was his very life.

  After intense discussions Joel Courtney put his pen to a document. The document began: I am the defendant in this proceeding, and I hereby withdraw my plea of not guilty. I waive my right to trial, and I choose to plead guilty to the following charge: Count 1—Aggravated Murder—Concealing the commission of the crime of kidnapping in the second degree.

  Courtney then noted that he was forty-three years old, had completed school up to fourteen years of age, and could read, speak, and understand English. He stated that he had fully discussed the plea deal with his attorneys and had been advised by them on the matter. He had also discussed with them the sentence he would receive for signing the document.

  Courtney noted that he was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol while signing the document, and that he took the medications of Atenolol, Lisinopril, and Prilosec.

  Then Courtney initialed three very important statements: (1.) I know that if I plead guilty to the charge, I cannot challenge on appeal any of the trial court’s earlier rulings in this case. (2.) I agree to a sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility of release or parole. (3.) I agree that my criminal history is accurately set forth as an attachment to the plea agreement.

  In a separate document to the judge, DA Haroldson noted that Brooke Wilberger’s parents, Diane Mason, and Jade Bateman were all in agreement with the plea deal. They were not standing in the way of it, and the matter would not be taken to trial where Joel Courtney could possibly receive the death penalty.

  After the signing of the documents, Haroldson had one more very important matter to take care of—a press conference that was about to reveal something everyone in the area wanted to know. For in this complicated plea agreement, Joel Courtney had to reveal where Brooke Wilberger’s remains were, in order to spare his life.

  The press conference that ensued was absolutely jammed with reporters, law enforcement personnel, OSU students, former volunteers in the hunt for Brooke, and ordinary citizens. DA John Haroldson began by telling the throng, “I’d like to take a moment and reflect on the great loss and protracted grief that the Wilbergers have had to endure at having to face a parent’s absolute worst nightmare. On May 24, 2004, Joel Courtney abducted Brooke Wilberger, the daughter of Greg and Cammy Wilberger. He abducted her. He raped her. He murdered her and left her body in the woods. And not until this weekend did we begin to recover the remains, and were able to confirm with absolute certainty that we had recovered the remains of Brooke Wilberger.”

  Haroldson said that the recovery of Brooke’s remains came after a long effort to settle the case outside of a jury trial. Haroldson then related that through the plea agreement, Joel Courtney was now sentenced to life in prison without parole. In return, Haroldson said, the Wilbergers now had a chance to lay Brooke to rest “in a
proper and honorable fashion.”

  Haroldson related that Joel Courtney disclosed that on May 24, 2004, he was driving a van and pulled into a parking lot where Brooke was cleaning lampposts. Joel said that he made a U-turn with the van as to block the view of Brooke so that she could not be seen from the apartments. He exited the van with a FedEx envelope in his hand, as if he was a delivery person. He then pretended to be looking for an address in the apartment complex. By that means he was able to get close to Brooke.

  Joel said that he abducted her at knifepoint and forced her into the van. In the struggle she screamed and lost her flip-flops on the pavement. Once they were both in the van, he drove a short distance and bound her with duct tape.

  “What followed was twenty-four hours of an isolated situation where Brooke was kept in the woods. There Mr. Courtney raped Brooke Wilberger and finally caused her death by bludgeoning her skull.”

  Haroldson noted that investigators in the case had taken many, many tips from the community. And that over the years, Brooke Wilberger had become an “icon” to Corvallis. “And in that sense, we, as a family, all felt the loss. And we will all remember Brooke Wilberger.”

  Haroldson reiterated about the immense amount of tips coming in, but no viable suspects emerged from those tips. It was Courtney’s abduction of Natalie Kirov, and her escape, that had been Joel’s undoing. It was Albuquerque PD’s background search on Courtney that led in a line to Joel’s DUI arrest in Lincoln County, Oregon, and his failure to show up for court there. And it was APD detectives contact with the Corvallis Police Department that began the threads that would tie together and lead back to Joel Courtney and Brooke Wilberger.