PORT ANGELES — The trial of a Port Angeles man accused of strangling a developmentally disabled woman to death last month has been postponed.
Kevin A. Bradfield, 22, is charged with second-degree murder in the death of Jennifer Pimentel, 27.
He was originally scheduled to go to trial Dec. 5. A new trial date is expected to be set at a status hearing at 1:30 p.m. Dec. 2.
In a brief status hearing Friday, attorneys told Clallam County Superior Court Judge Ken Williams that a trial won’t be possible in two weeks because the investigation is ongoing.
“We still have reports and parts of the investigation coming in,” Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Ann Lundwall said.
The Port Angeles Police Department led a multi-agency search for evidence at the bottom of Port Angeles Harbor on Tuesday.
Lundwall said some of the evidence has been sent to a State Patrol crime lab, and it isn’t clear when the lab tests will be finished.
Bradfield and his girlfriend, Kendell K. Huether, led authorities to Pimentel’s body in a heavily wooded area near the Hood Canal Bridge in East Jefferson County on Oct. 19.
Police alleged that Bradfield strangled Pimentel as she pleaded for her life Oct. 9.
Lundwall added an exceptional sentence to the second-degree murder charge because Pimentel was “particularly vulnerable or incapable of resistance.”
The exceptional sentence means Bradfield faces a maximum of life in prison — as well as a $50,000 fine — instead of the 10 to 18 years he would have faced.
Huether, 25, is charged with first-degree rendering criminal assistance.
Court papers allege that Huether stood idly by as her childhood friend was being strangled and that she helped Bradfield dispose of Pimentel’s body.
Pimentel had been staying at Huether’s residence on Lauridsen Boulevard.
Bradfield was being held in the Clallam County jail Friday on $1 million bond.
Huether was being held on $100,000 bond.
Lundwall filed a plea offer in Huether’s case Thursday.
Defense attorneys have not filed a response.
Huether faces a maximum of five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
