PORT ANGELES — The Port Angeles man charged with first-degree premeditated murder in the strangulation death of Jennifer Pimentel last October will get a new trial date Aug. 17.
Kevin A. Bradfield, 23, waived his right to a speedy trial in a seven-minute court hearing Monday. He also indicated that he is considering hiring his own attorney.
The trial originally was scheduled to begin Monday.
Clallam County Superior Court Judge George L. Wood granted a two-week continuance.
Bradfield is being represented by Loren Oakley of Clallam Public Defender.
Clallam County Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Ann Lundwall is representing the state. Lundwall did not object to the continuance.
Bradfield is accused of strangling Pimentel, a developmentally disabled woman, at his girlfriend’s Port Angeles residence and hiding her body in a wooded area in East Jefferson County.
Pimentel was 27.
Lundwall sought an exceptional sentence when she originally charged Bradfield with second-degree murder because the alleged killer “knew or should have known” that Pimentel was “particularly vulnerable or incapable of resistance,” charging papers said.
An intercepted jailhouse letter led to the first-degree murder charge that Lundwall filed in April.
The letter “indicated that Bradfield had planned to murder Pimentel to prevent her from accusing Bradfield of rape,” according to an amended certification of probable cause filed in court records.
Bradfield pleaded not guilty to both charges. He is being held in the Clallam County jail on $1 million bond.
________
Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345 ext. 5072 or at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
