PORT ANGELES — An intercepted jailhouse letter has led to an increased charge of first-degree murder for Kevin A. Bradfield, a Port Angeles man accused of strangling 27-year-old Jennifer Pimentel to death last October.
Bradfield, 22, pleaded not guilty to the new charge in a four-minute hearing in Clallam County Superior Court on Wednesday after it was filed by Clallam County Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Ann Lundwall.
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 previously was charged with second-degree murder in connection with the death of the developmentally disabled woman.
In February, a corrections sergeant in the Clallam County jail discovered the letter from Bradfield to a Michelle Bradfield in Oregon.
“The contents of the letter indicate the murder was pre-meditated by Bradfield,” Port Angeles Police Detective Kevin Spencer wrote in his report.
Defense attorney Loren Oakley said Bradfield’s May 21 trial likely will need to be rescheduled because of the new charge.
Superior Court Judge George L. Wood signed an order determining probable cause for the new charge and set a May 4 status hearing to discuss the trial date.
Bradfield’s trial already had been pushed back from December to March to May to allow time for DNA testing.
“Mr. Bradfield obviously has a right to be tried and get to trial,” Wood said.
“I know this makes the stakes much higher with the filing of the charge, but I don’t want to press his right to be tried and ignore that.”
The judge instructed Oakley to speak with Bradfield to “make a decision whether or not you want to continue [the trial] based upon the new charge.”
First-degree premeditated murder is a Class A felony with a maximum penalty of life in prison and a $50,000 fine.
When filing the second-degree murder charge last October, Lundwall sought an exceptional sentence that would give the court the option of imposing a life sentence upon a conviction instead of the 10 to 18 years he would have faced.
The state continues to seek the exceptional sentence because Bradfield “knew or should have known” that Pimentel was “particularly vulnerable or incapable of resistance,” charging papers said.
Port Angeles police alleged that Bradfield strangled Pimentel in his girlfriend’s Port Angeles apartment, then disposed of the body in a wooded area near the Hood Canal Bridge in East Jefferson County.
The girlfriend, Kendell K. Huether, 25, is charged with first-degree rendering criminal assistance for allegedly helping Bradfield dispose of the body.
Huether also is charged with two counts of witness tampering for allegedly telling two men to lie about seeing Pimentel alive after her disappearance.
Huether, who was released from jail in lieu of $100,000 bail in January, has been living in Port Angeles on electronic home monitoring and abiding by a curfew.
Her one-week trial was previously set to begin Monday. It was rescheduled for July 30 last week after the defense made a motion for a continuance.
Huether will have a status hearing June 14.
Court papers said Bradfield and Huether initially claimed Pimentel had accidentally fallen down some steps in the home and died from a broken neck.
They said they panicked and decided to fabricate a story about Pimentel having run off with an unknown man.
But upon further questioning, Bradfield later admitted to having strangled Pimentel in an Oct. 9 attack.
About 350 mourners attended Pimentel’s funeral in Port Angeles on Oct. 29.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5072, or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
