VIEW COURT DOCUMENTS ON THIS CASE: — http://www.issuu.com/peninsuladailynews/docs/pimentel
SEE EARLIER STORY today at Peninsula Daily News home page http://tinyurl.com/6zw2pl7 — “Port Angeles vigil for ‘sweetest girl’ found dead in woods; two due in court today”
By Tom Callis
Peninsula Daily News
PORT ANGELES — Bail was set at $1 million today for Kevin A. Bradfield, accused of strangling Jennifer Pimentel to death as she cried, “Stop, you’re killing me, please stop!”‘
As family and friends of the developmentally disabled woman looked on during the packed hearing, Superior Court Judge Brooke Taylor also set a $100,000 bail for Kendell Karlene Huether, accused of helping Bradfield dispose of the body.
Court documents said Bradfield admitted to strangling Pimentel, then disposing of her body with the help of Huether.
“Look, I killed her,” Bradfield said, according to the court documents.
The court documents said Huether brought her children along for the ride when she and Bradfield drove to a wooded area of Jefferson County to dump the body.
Bradfield and Huether were arrested Thursday for investigation of second-degree murder in the death of 27-year-old Pimentel, who had been reported missing Oct. 10.
Bradfield and Huether led police on Wednesday night to Pimentel’s body off Paradise Bay Road near the Hood Canal Bridge, according to Port Angeles Deputy Police Chief Brian Smith.
According to court documents in the case, Bradfield and Huether first told detectives that Pimentel had accidentally fallen down some steps in the home and died from a broken neck.
After that, they told detectives they got scared and decided to conceal Pimentel’s death and made up a story about Pimentel running off with an unknown man.
Police had said the Pimentel, whose family said she had a mental age of 12, had been dropped off by friends at The Gateway transit center and had purchased a Dungeness Bus Lines ticket to SeaTac, south of Seattle, where she lived with her fiancé.
She never got on the bus.
According to a police probable cause statement entered at the hearing — it did not explain a motive for the woman’s death — Bradfield, 22, strangled Pimentel on Oct. 9 in a Port Angeles home.
Huether, 25, watched as Pimentel went limp, after ignoring pleas for her to help.
“Huether . . .. observed Bradford with his hands around Pimentel’s throad and heard Pimentel saying, ‘Stop, you’re killing me, please stop’ and ‘Kendell, please help me,'” according to the probable cause statement.
“Huether said Bradfield continued to strangle and shake Pimentel by the throat until throat until Pimentel went limp.
“Huether described seeing blood coming from Pimentel’s nose and mouth.”
She then saw Bradfield pick her body up before dropping it back down.
“Look, I killed her,” Bradfield said, according to Huether.
Bradfield told detectives that he and Huether wrapped Pimentel in a blanket, wheeled her to a van in a shopping cart, then drove into Jefferson County to dispose of her body, taking Heuther’s children with them, according to the court documents.
They covered the body with soil and loose vegetation, then scattered the contents of her purse along U.S. Highway 101 as they drove back to Port Angeles.
They also admitted to dumping Pimentel’s suitcase in a trash bin in Sequim, according to court documents.
When they returned to the home, they admitted to cleaning the residence with bleach water to destroy evidence of death, the court documents said.
Judge Taylor said that the allegations against Bradfield are “shocking to say the least.”
He denied a request from Bradfield’s defense attorney, Harry Gasnick, to lower his bail, calling the man a “danger to the community.”
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
