PORT ANGELES — Bail was set at $1 million Friday 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, a longtime friend of Pimentel who is accused of helping Bradfield dispose of the body.
Huether and Bradfield remained in Clallam County jail Saturday.
Court documents said Bradfield admitted to strangling Pimentel.
Huether brought her three children along for the ride when she and Bradfield drove to a wooded area of Jefferson County to dump the body, court documents said.
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.
Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Ann Lundwall said she is considering filing a second-degree murder charge against Bradfield, 22.
It would require evidence of premeditation to justify a first-degree murder charge.
Huether, 25, will likely be charged with either being an accessory to a murder or rendering criminal assistance, Lundwall said.
The couple led police Wednesday night to Pimentel’s body off Paradise Bay Road near the Hood Canal Bridge, according to Port Angeles Deputy Police Chief Brian Smith.
The court documents said Bradfield and Huether first told detectives that Pimentel had accidentally fallen down some steps in their 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 that Pimentel, whose family said she had a mental age of 12, had been dropped off by friends at The Gateway transit center in downtown Port Angeles on Oct. 9 and had purchased a Dungeness Bus Lines ticket to SeaTac, south of Seattle, where she lived with
her fiance.
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 strangled Pimentel in a Port Angeles home the same day she was supposed to get on the bus.
Sgt. Glen Roggenbuck confirmed the home to be Huether’s residence, where Bradfield was also residing.
Huether ignored pleas for help from her longtime friend and watched as her went limp, according to court documents.
“Huether . . . observed Bradford with his
hands around Pimentel’s throat and heard Pimentel saying, ‘Stop, you’re killing me, please stop’ and ‘Kendell, please help me,’” according to the probable
cause statement.
She then saw Bradfield pick her body up before dropping it back down.
“Look, I killed her,” Bradfield said, according to court documents.
Huether told detectives she wanted to phone 9-1-1, but Bradfield convinced her not to, the court documents said.
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 Huether’s children with them, according to 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, police said.
Pimentel’s ID cards were later found by a road worker and turned in to the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office.
Bradfield and Huether 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 the death, court documents said.
Judge Taylor said 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.”
________
Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
