Suspect pleads guilty in murder of woman, 78, near Sisters

Published 12:00 am Thursday, July 3, 2014

Joshua Jokinen

Joshua Jokinen had an apology, but no explanation, Wednesday when he changed his plea to guilty of murdering Carolyn Burdick in her home near Sisters with a shovel in August.

Dressed in dark green jail clothes, his wrists cuffed to a belly chain, Jokinen spoke quietly just before Deschutes County Circuit Judge Alta Brady sentenced him to life in prison, with parole possible after 25 years.

“I just want to say I’m sorry to the family. I wish I had an explanation,” he said. “I wish I knew why.”

He paused for a moment, shook his head, shrugged. “That’s all.”

Jokinen’s lawyer, Jacques DeKalb, moments earlier explained to Brady, while thunder from a passing storm rumbled overhead, that Jokinen, 30, accepted responsibility for bludgeoning Burdick, 78, to death. The case against Jokinen was too strong to defend against, DeKalb said in court; “the evidence is clear that he and no one else committed this crime.”

Jokinen told Brady he read at a 12th-grade level and understood the consequences of his plea. Jokinen had pleaded not guilty in November after his indictment. He was scheduled to stand trial next week.

Attorneys in the case said they could not recall a defendant ever pleading guilty to a murder charge without attempting first to negotiate a lesser sentence or risk a trial.

“I think it’s unusual,” said Deputy District Attorney John Char outside of court. “I’m sure it’s happened before, but generally speaking they don’t have much to lose” by going to trial. Life imprisonment is the sentence mandated by state law for murder other than aggravated murder.

DeKalb said Jokinen remembered little about killing Burdick, except swinging the shovel. According to an account of Burdick’s death that Char recounted in court, Jokinen, his girlfriend and another man delivered a load of firewood to Burdick’s home on Kent Road in Cloverdale last Aug. 31. Jokinen went inside with a shovel to clean the fireplace. He was alone several minutes with Burdick, whom he’d never previously met, before he exited, saying he needed a tarp, according to Char.

“It’s getting everywhere,” Jokinen told his friends, who thought he meant ash from the fireplace. He meant the woman’s blood, Char said. Outside of court, Deschutes County District Attorney Patrick Flaherty said repeated blows had shattered Burdick’s skull.

Burdick’s husband, Daniel Burdick, in a state hospital, listened by telephone to the plea and sentencing. Char read a statement from Daniel Burdick in court.

“I do not understand why he killed my wife,” the statement read. “Everyone needs to be forgiven, as I, too, have been forgiven. I forgive you.” He urged Jokinen to find God.

DeKalb in court said Jokinen does not know why he killed Burdick, and that a psychological evaluation found nothing that DeKalb could use as a defense. Flaherty said outside court that Jokinen was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol at the time. Jokinen in August was on post-release supervision from a 2006 conviction for second-degree assault. He beat a man with a trailer-hitch ball in Madras, according to court records.

Jokinen was first to report that he had killed Burdick. Staff at the Jefferson County jail turned him away when he told them he’d murdered someone in Sisters, according to an affidavit by investigating sheriff’s deputies. Jokinen afterward turned himself in to Madras police after phoning a dispatcher from the Madras Tiger Mart.

DeKalb said that of 39 defendants he’s represented in murder cases, Jokinen is the first to plead guilty without reservation. Char and Flaherty said Jokinen’s plea was a first for them, too.

Flaherty said Jokinen displayed a shred of honor by accepting responsibility for an otherwise dishonorable act. Jokinen’s is the sixth murder conviction Flaherty’s staff has obtained during his term in office.

“I don’t have Jacques’ experience,” he said. “But I’ve been doing this 25 years and I’ve never seen anyone plead straight up to murder.”

— Reporter: 541-617-7815, jditzler@bendbulletin.com

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